Turkcell, Huawei Test GU@5MHz at Ankara TechCity2.0

Turkcell and Huawei have completed verification of the GU@5MHz solution on commercial networks in Aksaray, Turkey.

Testing showed that this innovative solution enables dynamic spectrum sharing between GSM and UMTS, boosting spectrum efficiency by 20%. This successful verification marks the beginning of CloudAIR-air interface resource cloudification in Turkcell, opening up the road to 5G.

As the leading mobile operator of Turkey, Turkcell’s MBB penetration rate grew by 10% in 2016 with an average monthly dataflow of usage (DoU) up to 2.8GB. Building a ubiquitous MBB network on the 900MHz frequency band is important for Turkcell to enhance deep coverage and ease the capacity pressure coming from growing MBB demands.

However, there is still considerable GSM traffic in some areas, which prevents spectrum refarming all over the country. Now, with Huawei’s GU@5MHz solution, spectrum resources can be dynamically shared between RATs. Turkcell can deploy ubiquitous U900 without worrying about losing GSM traffic.

The test result showed that MBB coverage enhanced by 4dB and MBB throughput increased by 20%, meanwhile GSM network quality improved by 30% relatively due to the uplink CoMP algorithm applied in 2G.

Gediz Sezgin, CNO of Turkcell spoke highly of GU@5MHz solution, he remarked, "In 2017, Turkcell and Huawei jointly build the TechCity to offer optimal experience and improve quality of life for end-users by innovative technologies. Dynamic spectrum sharing is a truly significant breakthrough in spectrum allocation. It allows for better use of spectrum, keeping 2G networks stable and accelerating MBB development. I am very pleased with the favorable results.”

Wang Yixiang, President of Huawei's GSM&UMTS&CDMA Product Line said, "Huawei is dedicated to offering technical innovations to continually improve spectrum efficiency, supporting customer success by maximizing spectrum value. The dynamic spectrum sharing technology used by the GU@5MHz solution not only boosts spectral efficiency, but also supports gradual traffic migration from 2G to MBB”.

Huawei’s GU@5MHz solution has already gone live on 8 commercial networks. 10 more operators are in discussion with Huawei about commercial verification.

As one of the first steps towards CloudAIR, wide deployment of GU@5MHz solution demonstrates the maturity of air interface cloudification technology, which will ensure smooth evolution to 5G.