TM500 LTE-A Test Mobile receives Support for TDD Carrier Aggregation

LTE-A has provision for up to five component carriers of up to 20 MHz bandwidth to be combined, with the aim of raising the peak data rate to 1 Gbps and beyond. 3GPP Release 10 specifies 11 TDD bands, along with a range of scenarios for aggregating specific pairs of these bands in both contiguous and non-contiguous combinations. This technique combines the capacity of different frequency bands while maximizing the benefits of the superior propagation capability in the lower frequency band.

The TM500 Test Mobile, the de facto industry standard for testing LTE base stations or eNodeBs, now supports all of the TDD carrier aggregation scenarios specified in 3GPP Release 10. Aeroflex continues to work with leading network infrastructure vendors to enable them to develop and begin to roll out the high bandwidth services promised by LTE-A.

The TDD version of LTE, and evolving to LTE-A, is important not only in China and the rest of Asia, but also in Europe where some TD-LTE networks are already in place. From a spectrum efficiency standpoint, carrier aggregation is even more pertinent to TDD systems, since it allows small bands of unpaired spectrum to be combined and used efficiently, said Shusina Ngwa, product manager at Aeroflex. Providing cellular infrastructure vendors with TDD carrier aggregation capability at this early stage is vital so they can use the Aeroflex TM500 Test Mobile to test their networks ahead of the availability of real terminals and handsets.