Nomor Research offers end-to-end 3GPP LTE-A relay prototype implementation

In today’s deployed mobile cellular networks, the shift in paradigm from traditional macrocell deployments to an increasing use of small cell base stations can be already seen. So-called Heterogeneous Networks are seen as primary driver for this transition supporting the increasing data traffic demand. LTE-Advanced relay, as standardized in 3GPP Release 10, are an integral part of such network evolution providing coverage and capacity enhancements.

Nomor Research completed the protocol stack implementation of an LTE-A capable Relay Node and Relay Node enabled Base Station, called Donor eNB. The end-to-end software implementation supports various Relay Nodes each having a number of users, and supports user mobility between the nodes. Amongst other features, advanced schedulers for the Donor eNB and its Relay Nodes have been implemented supporting inband and outband scheduling with Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning.

Eiko Seidel, CTO at Nomor, states that “today’s LTE infrastructure market will evolve towards much more cost-effective, compact micro-cell base stations, due to the growing traffic demand. Heterogeneous Networks complemented by Relay Nodes are one way for a cost-effective deployment of LTE/LTE-A network with full coverage even at newly available higher frequency bands. The combination of Nomor licensing such LTE base station software, offering related R&D services and being involved in cutting edge research projects in the LTE and LTE-A domain, provides our customers a complete package to offload L2/3 efforts to a trusted partner.”