Motorola’s Networks business has successfully completed Phase I TD-LTE field trials with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). This over-the-air (OTA) trial included key functionality, performance, and mobility test cases in a multi-sector, multi-site environment that lays a solid foundation for large-scale TD-LTE deployment, the company says.

During the trial, the technology demonstrated high performance with downlink throughput up to 80 Mbits/s. Also, it demonstrated key TD-LTE features including mobility and handover with live applications and low latency. It utilized third-party user-equipment (UE) test to guarantee standard compliance. And, the TD-LTE trial sites were overlaid on existing 2G/3G sites.

Motorola says that it is now ready to begin Phase II TD-LTE field trials with an increased focus on applications and quality of service (QoS) in Shunyi, Beijing. The new trials follow Motorola’s recently announced TD-LTE key functionalities test initiated by the TD-LTE working group, which MIIT set up in June 2009 with China’s three telecom operators and other industry planners.

Several factors are driving the industry’s growing interest in TD-LTE. First, the low cost of time-division duplex (TDD) spectrum is particularly attractive to emerging and developing markets. Also, operators have a continuing need for more capacity and spectrum. Third, with TD-LTE, phones can roam and hand off between TD-LTE and FDD (frequency division duplex) LTE networks.

This roaming capability means that operators can use TD-LTE networks to augment their FDD LTE network for more capacity or other applications such as video broadcasting. Meanwhile, operators who use TD-LTE as their “main” network can still enable their subscribers to roam to the FDD LTE networks of other operators in different countries.

In addition to its work with MIIT, Motorola is actively engaged with global tier-one operators on TD-LTE trials. As a partner with China Mobile Communications Corp., it is providing TD-LTE indoor network coverage for several pavilions at Shanghai Expo. To help operators build a healthy TD-LTE ecosystem, Motorola will work with partners to integrate and launch TD-LTE USB dongles supporting 2.3 GHz at the event.

A single TD-LTE USB dongle can stream 24 simultaneous video streams while supporting very high-speed Internet browsing applications at a total data rate of 20 Mbits/s. A TD-LTE carrier in 20 MHz can support the transmission of a few hundred video streams simultaneously. Motorola will demonstrate this video streaming at the Information and Communication Pavilion at the show.

Also, Motorola will demonstrate a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle carrying a camera and a laptop to showcase real-time TD-LTE performance on the move. Live video captured by the camera can be viewed on other laptops and the main screen within the demonstration area via a TD-LTE USB dongle.

In addition, visitors will be able to set up a video stream session between the laptop on the vehicle and the laptops in the demonstration area. Motorola predicts future mobile performance at speeds 20 times faster than the current 3G network, moving at 350 km/hour on high-speed railways.

Motorola