DURBAN - MTN SA has successfully commercially launched Huawei's CloudAIR 2.0 solution to share spectrum between 2G, 3G, 4G and NB-IoT radio technologies in the 900MHz band.
In 2017 The two companies launched a Joint Innovation Programme to research and trial innovative technologies like CloudAIR 2.0 in MTN's SA network.
Huawei CloudAIR2.0 allows various radio access technologies (RAT) to share spectrum resources dynamically instead of using traditional refarming. This works via an on-demand spectrum allocation method which replaces dedicated spectrum allocation.
The CloudAIR 2.0 solution supports overlap of 2G, 3G, 4G and NB-IoT services in the 900MHz spectrum band. This allows MTN SA to make better use of its limited 900MHz spectrum allocation and get a 45% improvement in LTE throughput within the band.
Giovanni Chiarelli, MTN SA's Chief Technology and Information Officer said that the spectrum is an important asset. This new network optimisation technique improves spectral efficiency and gives MTN the ability to use LTE within the same 900MHz along with GSM, UMTS and NB-IoT while substantially bettering LTE coverage and user experience.
The President of Wireless Network Product Line os Huawei, Edward Deng said that the spectrum cloudification sharing capabilities of CloudAIR2.0 allow for the use of various radio access technologies within the same spectrum.
CloudAIR 2.0 can allocate and adjust spectrum resources according to the changes in mobile traffic and avoid legacy radio access technologies from using prime spectrum which will improve spectral efficiency.
Huawei said that CloudAIR 2.0 benefits customers by giving them a better user experience on the Mobile Broadband Network.
5G trial
MTN SA and Huawei just recently launched their outdoor 5G trial in South Africa. With the trial, MTN was able to reach speeds of 530Mbps and upload speeds of 79Mbps.