February 22, 2012, 10:02 AM — Ericsson can increase upload capacity by a factor of three in HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) networks, thanks to the use of more antennas and proprietary interference suppression technology, the company said on Wednesday.
Download speeds in mobile networks tend to get the most attention. But as more users upload information from mobile devices to cloud services and share photos via social networks, upload capacity is becoming more important, according to Ericsson.
On Jan. 25, Ericsson privately demonstrated that the shared uplink throughput was increased from around 4M bps (bits per second) to more than 12M bps, using one 5MHz carrier.
The improvements were achieved thanks to a combination of base stations configured with four antennas per cell, instead of the traditional two, and Ericsson's interference suppression technology. The latter uses advanced software algorithms in the base station to reduce the negative effects of uplink interference that today is a bottleneck in many 3G networks, according to the vendor.
There is no need to upgrade smartphones or other devices in order to take advantage of the gain, Ericsson said. In theory, mobile devices today support upload speeds at up to 5.76M bps.
Ericsson will demonstrate the uplink improvements at Mobile World Congress, which runs from Feb. 27 to March 1 in Barcelona.
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