ZTE launches dual-connectivity test for end-to-end commercial systems to push in-depth TDD and FDD integration

Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, announced that ZTE was the first to launch dual-connectivity performance tests based on end-to-end (E2E) commercial long-term evolution (LTE) platforms. The announcement was made by Dr. Han Gang, vice president of ZTE's time division duplexing (TDD) products, during his keynote at the 14th Global time-division long-term evolution (TD-LTE) Initiative (GTI) Workshop held in Budapest, Hungary.

The test results, based on Marvell's commercial terminal chips and ZTE's commercial TD-LTE systems, showed that dual connections doubled the end user rates in a variety of service modes and essentially replicate the same as those of LTE carrier aggregation in rate performance.

With the explosive growth of 4G users, mobile operators are experiencing rising demands for spectrum resources. With its ability to expand to higher frequencies, the TDD spectrum has become an important resource for the future capacity expansion of LTE operators, particularly frequency division duplexing (FDD) LTE operators. LTE players are competing to deploy highly integrated TDD and FDD networks to make the most of the resources available.

“Dual-connectivity TDD and FDD technology, which is adaptive to the majority of existing transmission conditions worldwide, follows the future trends of dense deployment of integrated networks and sharp increases in the demands for macro-micro coordination. In addition, the flexible network architecture constructed using this technology is compatible with the differences in FDD and TDD technology development, laying a solid foundation for building healthier industry partnerships”, said Dr Han Gang.

To date, dual connectivity TDD and FDD has been recognised as the leading and most economical technology with the highest scalability to provide user-centric services and enhance user perception in macro-micro networking scenarios. ZTE continues to innovate in carrier aggregation technology, pioneering FDD and TDD carrier aggregation tests in 2014, achieving positive results.

Dr. Han Gang said that “Carrier aggregation and dual-connectivity technologies can co-exist, and working together can achieve the maximum benefits of integrated networks in appropriate scenarios, providing a better LTE user experience and developing a more prosperous and harmonious LTE industry”, said Dr Han Gang.