Etisalat Misr (Etisalat Egypt) and Huawei have completed the world's first verification of Huawei's CloudAIR GL15MHz spectrum dynamic sharing solution on Etisalat Misr's 1800MHz network in Cairo, Egypt. The solution enables spectrum dynamic sharing between GSM and LTE with unprecedented overlap between the two, which increases both LTE data rate and cell capacity available in the 1800MHz spectrum allocation.
Compared to LTE 10MHz, the average user throughput has increased by 20% on downlink, while peak throughput reached 92Mbps. Compared to GSM 5MHz and LTE 15MHz without the CloudAIR feature, the GSM KPI remains stable without degradation.
"Frequency spectrum resources are extremely valuable," said Khalid Murshed, CTO of Etisalat Misr. "Spectrum allocation is static in the traditional refarming solution, which results sometimes to in low utilization rate. In comparison, CloudAIR GL spectrum sharing supports more efficient spectrum sharing between GSM and LTE. That has helped to boost spectral efficiency and improve the overall experience of 4G users in Cairo."
Khalid said he is "very pleased" with the favorable results. The CloudAIR solution "supports Etisalat's strategy to keep MBB leadership in the Egyptian market through innovation and adoption of new technologies; I highly anticipate the solution's expedited deployment on the entire network," he added.
Etisalat Misr launched 4G services in November 2016 and currently serves 3.4 million LTE users, with the largest share of those users in Egypt. As users increasingly migrate to LTE, effective allocation of spectrum resources to handle the growing LTE data traffic has become a priority for Etisalat Misr.
The CloudAIR solution adopts Huawei's proprietary algorithms to free operators from the restrictions of standard LTE bandwidth. The solution ensures that scattered spectrum resources are fully utilized to deliver higher data rates and better user experience by increasing flexibility in the Resource Block allocation and spectrum allocation used by LTE.
This concept also maintains sufficient GSM channels to carry 2G CS traffic. The test cases show that GL spectrum sharing allows for an approximately 20% increase in average downlink user throughput, compared with LTE 10MHz bandwidth.
"CloudAIR is the best proof of Huawei's continuous innovation in the wireless domain," said Peter Zhou, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei's Wireless Solutions. "This solution accelerates the full convergence of multi-band and multi-RAT networks to achieve the best performance of the entire network."
Zhou added, "We are glad to verify this solution on commercial networks in partnership with Etisalat Misr. Huawei is dedicated to offering technical innovations to secure customers' business success. The CloudAIR GL spectrum dynamic sharing solution not only increases spectral efficiency, but also promises operators a smooth transition to LTE."
