Enhancements Quadruple the Voice Capacity of Existing CDMA2000 1X Networks

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has announced that the specifications for CDMA2000 1X Advanced have been completed and published by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). ­The 1X Advanced standard allows 3G CDMA operators to significantly increase the voice capacity of their CDMA2000 1X network by taking advantage of several interference cancellation and radio link enhancements. Among these improvements are base transceiver station (BTS) interference cancellation, improved power control, early frame termination, and smart blanking.

1X Advanced enhancements can be integrated all at once or in phases, offering operators an evolutionary approach to expanding existing networks based on their individual market needs. The complete set of 1X Advanced enhancements can theoretically quadruple the voice capacity of CDMA2000 1X systems in the same 1.25 MHz of spectrum.

"Both large and small CDMA2000 operators will benefit greatly from the voice capacity gains enabled by 1X Advanced," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "In addition to lowering the average cost per call for more affordable voice services, 1X Advanced also frees up channels to deliver 1xEV-DO broadband data services. as Additionally, as operators consider augmenting their 3G CDMA networks with LTE and Mobile WiMAX, 1X Advanced will enable them to get more out of their existing circuit-switched voice networks for as long as needed."

The spectral efficiency of the 3GPP2 standard has been recently enhanced with advanced voice codecs like Enhanced Variable Rate Codec-B (EVRC-B) and the use of quasi-linear interference cancellation (QLIC) techniques, which are already providing up to 50 percent higher voice capacity in today's networks. The next step would be to move to 1X Advanced, which is a simple channel card upgrade (expected to be commercial in the second half of 2010) with new devices supporting mobile receive diversity, enabling them to more than double voice capacity immediately after the channel upgrade.

A complementary device enhancement known as simultaneous 1X Voice and EV-DO Data (SVDO) will also become available during the same timeframe and will enable CDMA2000 devices to access EV-DO packet data services while in an active 1X circuit-switch voice call. This device enhancement, which enables these concurrent voice and data services, is independent of the air link standard and infrastructure.

Posted to the site on 18th August 2009