RFFE System Design Is Key for Network Efficiency and Better User Experience

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By Malik Saadi | 3Q 2017 | IN-4767

The network evolution to LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and LTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro) are essential enhancements for extending the lifespan of LTE, and critical steps for ensuring a smooth transition to 5G. Not only will these technologies enable operators to launch new high-bandwidth services and unlock new business opportunities, but these upgrades will also dramatically improve network performance in terms of coverage, cell-edge capacity, and spectral efficiency.

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LTE to 5G Evolution: Key Device Upgrade Considerations for Increasing Efficiencies in the Network

NEWS


The network evolution to LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and LTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro) are essential enhancements for extending the lifespan of LTE, and critical steps for ensuring a smooth transition to 5G. Not only will these technologies enable operators to launch new high-bandwidth services and unlock new business opportunities, but these upgrades will also dramatically improve network performance in terms of coverage, cell-edge capacity, and spectral efficiency.

Smartphones populating these networks will have a determinant role in augmenting the efficiency of these networks. In order to maximize their effectiveness, it is essential that they are packed with vital RF front-end (RFFE) technologies, such as RFFE architectures supporting 4x4 MIMO, envelope tracking (ET), and antenna tuning, while ensuring that all are integrated appropriately into well-constructed modem-to-antenna designs.

Defining the Key Parameters for Next-Generation Network Efficiency

IMPACT


The evolution of LTE networks is essential to addressing new business cases and improving speeds, while providing a timely upgrade of networks to address capacity and coverage issues. Technology suppliers must, however, also search for ways to improve network efficiency, a fundamental requirement to serve the voracious data demands of the market and create an improved user experience. This is underpinned by the following key parameters: network coverage, throughput, spectral efficiency, and network capacity.

The deployment of MIMO—4x4 MIMO and 4x receive diversity (i.e., 2x4 MIMO)—addresses many of these cornerstones because it helps provide robustness to the radio link by the use of multiple antennas and improves spectral efficiency. It also allows much higher data rates, and better range and reliability. To enable a better experience for all, a number of particular components in the device are required to help this network transition. Ignoring the modem and effect on battery life, most of these components are related to the RFFE. It is here that each element along the RFFE chain will need some level of upgrade as these new advanced networks come online. Failure to do so will create inefficiencies and poor user experiences.

The choice of antenna technology, power amplifiers, filters, LNAs, and ET is becoming critical in the LTE landscape, and LTE-A Pro in particular, as devices are expected to handle radio frequencies with different propagation parameters. If the radio platform is not carefully designed to handle this change, it leads to overall transmission degradation and system power inefficiencies.

In an effort to best handle the new features brought about by these LTE upgrades and beyond to 5G, there are a number of RFFE mechanisms required to take full advantage of the network efficiencies achieved through their implementation, namely ETs, antenna tuning, and 4x4 MIMO RFFE architecture. ET is crucial as consumers are increasingly sharing content and uplink speeds are improved, while tunable antennas enable significant reduction in the occupied area of a smartphone. Through use of the latest adaptive antenna-tuning technologies, the handset can automatically maximize the link quality for transmit or receive.

Efficient MIMO implementations can improve communications speed in the network by using multiple transceiving antennas, promising significant improvements in signal reliability, higher throughput, better coverage, and increased spectral efficiency without the use of additional transmit power or spectrum resources. Because spectral bandwidth is a finite and valuable commodity, MIMO is an increasingly important wireless technique in the drive to make more effective use of available bandwidth.

Network Device Population and the Impact of the Technology Mix

COMMENTARY


By implementing smartphones that are built to higher category LTE standards, the user is not only getting a better user experience through higher data rates, but these devices are also more efficient because they use fewer network resources to get these faster speeds. This is where the use of technologies likes 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM come into their own because more bits can be packed into every LTE transmission, i.e., they enable more bits over the air in a smaller amount of spectrum. For example, high-end gigabit LTE devices have the network sending 4 bps for every 1 Hz of spectrum, whereas lower category LTE devices are getting around 3 bps on spectrum that they are allocated.

While implementing these technologies in smartphones is clearly needed to create efficiencies in the network, this is proving difficult for OEMs to achieve because they are incorporated into very few models currently on the market. This is set to change over the next 12 months as more smartphone models are expected to be launched with these requisite technologies, making them more harmonized with advanced network rollouts, thereby providing marked improvements in efficiencies and user experiences.

For a more detailed version of this article, please refer to:

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20170907/opinion/analyst-angle-rffe-system-design-is-key-for-network-efficiency-and-better-user-experience-tag9

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