Many advancements have been made to LTE from releases 9-13, bringing to the industry LTE-A and LTE-A Pro and creating a foundation for 5G networks. The latest release of EDX’s LTE-PRO Module contains features to support these releases and plan networks to allow for:
- High Data Rates
- Carrier Aggregation
- Use of unlicensed bands
- MIMO
- Flexible modulation schemes
By navigating to the LTE-PRO menu in SignalPro (enabled through the module), users are able to select the system profile, SCS, Bandwidth and Cyclic Prefix as per 3GPP standards.
Also in this menu:
CQI Table
From this menu, you may also use the CQI Table to define the CQI to be used and customized as needed, allowing for LTE-A PRO Modulation schemes.
TDD Parameters
The TDD frame is used to define how the signal is carried in the slots of the frame. This menu option allows you to choose from the predefined LTE TDD frames from 0-7 or add your own frame.
Excel Workbook in RAN NODE
Selecting the ‘RAN Node’ button opens up the RAN GUI, allowing users to set up an Excel workbook and enhancing the design of LTE-PRO networks. Each cluster rollout and deployment vary on area, demographics, equipment and use case. Whether small cell urban to large macro in suburban, each sector needs to be modeled with the correct setting emulating the field for the most accurate design. The workbook allows for per site/sector settings and allows engineers to plan for different scenarios and deployment cases.
From the workbook, you may configure the following:
- Introduction
- Site
- Sector
- Technology
- CQI-UL
- CQI-DL
- TDD frame
- CA
CA on UE GUI
Each UE has its own unique capabilities, dependent on the vendor, one of which is the Carrier Aggregation it can work on. To emulate real network conditions, the LTE-PRO Module features CA capabilities for individual UE devices. In the ‘Mobile/Remote Unit’ dialog, users will find an entry to add the CA combos supported for that UE. An example would be comparing CA for iPhone 10 and Samsung S20 in different geographic regions.
LTE MIMO UL & DL Configuration
As growth and investments in smart antennas for the latest technology trends continue, it has also become imperative to model MIMO configurations and UL/DL parameters. The MIMO table available in the LTE-PRO Module is fully customizable for all vendor equipment and scenarios.
Studies for different UE types on CA
New studies have been added to show the different UE types and their CA coverage. These studies will provide information of which UEs are able to receive CA in the right condition for higher data rates and which UEs have a better CA coverage over the other. In the study details, users can select the different UE types and new studies to run the heat map comparison.
Read the LTE Pro Solution Brief here:
https://docs.edx.com/edx-lte-pro-solution-brief.html
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