NEC Delivers LTE-Advanced Compatible High-capacity Base Station Equipment To NTT DOCOMO

BY Editor

NEC delivers LTE-Advanced compatible high-capacity base station equipment to NTT DOCOMO – Feb 06, 2015– Tokyo, Japan (Techreleased) – NEC Corporation today announced that it has delivered commercial versions of high-capacity base station equipment that support the LTE-Advanced next-generation communications system to NTT DOCOMO, INC. (DOCOMO). In February 2013, NEC was one of the vendors selected by DOCOMO for the development and manufacturing of high-capacity base station equipment. The equipment will be used for DOCOMO’s LTE-Advanced services that are scheduled to launch during Fiscal 2014 (the year ending March 31, 2015).

Using carrier aggregation technology that drastically improves communication speeds by bundling data at different frequency bands, a maximum downlink of 225Mbps will be achieved by the LTE-Advanced system. In addition, when used in combination with the Small Cell Radio Equipment, or SRE, which was developed at the same time and optimized for small cell communications, the equipment will be the first to support the advanced C-RAN architecture advocated by DOCOMO, ensuring that stable, high-speed data communications and expanded wireless capacity is achieved, even in areas slowed by congested traffic.

High-capacity base station equipment serve as the base station control units (primary stations) of remotely configured base stations. They connect with cells (secondary stations) of different sizes, such as micro cells and small cells, through the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), a new network architecture promoted by DOCOMO, and house a maximum of 48 units. The arbitrary cell frequencies housed by the primary station are bundled to enable carrier aggregation, which allows for high speed communications to be further accelerated to achieve a maximum throughput of 3Gbps. Moreover, when functions are improved in the future, the upgrades can be handled through software updates, offering exceptional ease of maintenance.

“The advanced C-RAN architecture being promoted by DOCOMO increases not only data throughput by utilizing carrier aggregation technologies but also increases radio network capacity without any degradation of service quality by coordinating between macro-cells that cover a wide area and small cells that cover local areas working for radio network capacity. This technology marks an important contribution to the further evolution of LTE and to the realization for future 5G,” said Mr. Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, DOCOMO. “NEC’s equipment is playing a significant role in the realization of advanced C-RAN architecture and the commercial launch of Category 6 Carrier Aggregation data communication services exceeding 225 Mbps planned for March 2015.”

“We are very pleased that NEC has delivered high-capacity base station equipment to DOCOMO and is contributing to the early realization of DOCOMO’s LTE-Advanced services,” said Mr. Shunichiro Tejima, Executive Vice President, NEC. “We regard the advanced C-RAN that this high-capacity base station equipment makes possible as an important milestone towards achieving future 5G technologies.”

NEC focuses on wireless broadband as one of the key fields in its telecom carrier business, and by supporting DOCOMO’s LTE mobile service Xi(R) with total solutions, it has helped expand widespread adoption of the service. Looking ahead, NEC will continue to bolster its partnership with DOCOMO and contribute to the upgrading and expansion of its network.

Moving forward, NEC will continue to further boost communication speeds and develop more sophisticated service features, thereby contributing to the development of services provided by telecom carriers.