HSPA+ and LTE

back to all posts

January 14, 2010

I ended my last blog HSPA+ is Here! with an interesting question: “Since LTE is around the corner, why should anybody invest in upgrading to HSPA+?” Well, I think this quote from Gabriel Brown of Heavy Reading gives an excellent answer:

“…with at least a year's time-to-market advantage over LTE, HSPA+ can help to significantly relieve pending mobile capacity shortages. With an initial focus on cost-effective, software-only upgrades to 64-QAM modulation, and then a later upgrade to more hardware-intensive MIMO and multi-carrier technology...”

HSPA+ is a natural and cost-effective evolution for today’s HSPA networks. There is no need to buy new spectrum or to deploy brand new infrastructure, both of which can be very expensive and time consuming.

LTE on the other hand, needs new spectrum, and new radio and core networks. A key benefit of LTE is that it can easily leverage wider bandwidth spectrum, 10 MHz or more. It can be effectively used to augment the data capacity of HSPA and HSPA+ networks, especially in dense-urban areas. LTE is also optimal for the unpaired TDD spectrum.

But, the interesting fact is that both HSPA+ and LTE offer similar performance when using the same antenna configuration and spectrum bandwidth. For example, for a system with 2x2 MIMO and 10 MHz of bandwidth, both HSPA+ and LTE provide similar capacity, similar peak and cell-edge data rates, as well as similar user perceived latency. The reason for this is very simple—both HSPA+ and LTE leverage the same enhancements to increase performance; Highly optimized shared channel, advanced antenna techniques like MIMO, higher order modulation, advanced receivers, wider bandwidths, just to name a few.

So, going back to the original question, operators can cost-effectively evolve their existing HSPA networks to HSPA+. Depending on the availability of new spectrum, and market requirements, many operators could also selectively overlay their HSPA/HSPA+ networks with LTE. From the user perspective, they get an excellent mobile broadband experience, no matter whether it is HSPA+ or LTE. And better yet, both of these technologies are evolving in parallel—HSPA+ is racing to Rel. 8 and Rel. 9, while LTE is progressing to LTE Advanced.

Wait, before you go, you might want to sign-up for our upcoming webinar HSPA+ is here, what's next?, which will cover the above as well as all other facets of the HSPA+ evolution in detail.

Topics: HSPA+, LTE
Prakash Sangam

Prakash Sangam

Senior Manager, Technical Marketing
Biography More from this author

Comments

Mythili Arunachalam

May 15, 2010, 4:28 PM

Do we need new devices for using HSPA+? Does iPhone 3G support HSPA+?
Thanks

Qualcomm Blog Author

May 16, 2010, 2:36 PM

With Qualcomm being based in San Diego, you guys should pull some strings and convince the carriers to light us up with HSPA+ or LTE, soon than later

psangam

May 17, 2010, 12:59 PM

Mythili,

You are right, HSPA+ needs new devices.

No, iPhone 3G doesn't yet support HSPA+. But, there are currently more than 40 HSPA+ device models in the market to choose from (source:www.gsacom.com).

Also, note that HSPA devices work seamlessly in HSPA+ network, and similarly, HSPA+ devices work seamlessly in HSPA network, albeit without the high data rates, higher capacity and other HSPA+ benefits.

Qualcomm Blog Author

May 17, 2010, 1:14 PM

44thfloor Collective,

Thanks for the comment.

I am happy to mention that there are currently more than 50 HSPA+ commercial networks in the world, including T-Mobile in the USA. Another 50 or so operators have shown strong commitment.

LTE also has a lot of interest, some multimode LTE commercial launches are expected toward the end of this year.

Please visit www.gsacom.com to see the full list of operators.

Andrew

February 15, 2011, 10:35 AM

I was looking at Qualcomm's slide pack "LTE TDD, The Global Solution for Unpaired Spectrum" which noted the coverage deficit with TDD cells compared to FDD cells. I've not seen this quantified before (an 80% coverage advantage for LTE vs 2:1 DL/UL and 40% advantage vs 1:1) - worse than I'd thought.
My question is whether the same coverage penalty applies to TD-SCDMA and WiMAX compared to WCDMA or CDMA2000? (in other words, is the scale of the penalty dependent on the TD technology in use?
(Sorry if this is the wrong place to post - I couldnt see any TD-LTE conversations)

Qualcomm Blog Author

February 22, 2011, 2:14 PM

Andrew,

Thanks for the question.

The difference in coverage between TDD and FDD systems is independent of the air link technology.

However, when you compare the TDD and FDD coverage of different air link technologies, there might be other variables as well, such as the spectrum they operate in and how efficient the air link design is etc..

Anonymous

May 14, 2011, 8:47 AM

It seems upgrade to HSPA+ useless. Thanks

skyf.org

May 23, 2011, 11:28 AM

Can any body explain TDD and FDD

JUAL EMPING

October 11, 2011, 7:36 PM

I am glad to read your post and to be part of it. I will be back to check more of your post.

Post a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

Opinions expressed in the content posted here are the personal opinions of the original authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Qualcomm Incorporated or its subsidiaries ("Qualcomm"). The content is provided for informational purposes only and is not meant to be an endorsement or representation by Qualcomm or any other party. This site may also provide links or references to non-Qualcomm sites and resources. Qualcomm makes no representations, warranties, or other commitments whatsoever about any non-Qualcomm sites or third-party resources that may be referenced, accessible from, or linked to this site.