Ericsson and Softbank Mobile are conducting the field demonstration of LTE cooperative transmission control / coordinated scheduling function. This function provides significant gain to cell-edge user performance and can improve cell-edge user throughout by a factor of three.

Coordinated scheduling avoids the severe interference that can otherwise be encountered at the cell edge between base stations that operate on the same frequency. By coordinating the base stations’ use of radio resources, it is possible to improve cell-edge user throughput by a factor of two or three, while simultaneously improving overall cell throughput.

The test, conducted using commercially available LTE terminals, clearly demonstrated the strong potential of coordinated radio resource management functionality in LTE networks. Network was located in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan – a combination of urban, suburban and rural radio environments.

Ericsson provided an  end-to-end LTE solution for the test, consisting of its multi-standard base station, EPC network, OSS software and professional services