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Sprint LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation Discovered Live Today in Atlanta (B41 2xCA)


S4GRU

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by Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 5:20 PM MDT

 

It's finally happening. 2x Carrier Aggregation was found in the wild today on the Sprint network! We have been receiving reports for the past several months that second B41 channels were appearing all over Sprint-land, but nothing about finding them being aggregated together. That changed this afternoon.

 

It was discovered today by an S4GRU Member in the Atlanta market that Carrier Aggregation is live on LTE Band 41 (TDD LTE 2600). S4GRU Member Camcroz was able to get his Samsung Galaxy S6 to connect to two B41 carriers simultaneously. Even with a medicore -108dBm signal while moving highway speeds, he was able to get nearly 90Mbps. Theoretical maximum for 2xCA on 20MHz TDD LTE channels in the time configuration Sprint is using is 160Mbps in ideal circumstances.

 

We do not know the extent of how much is live in Atlanta or other markets. This may only have been a test and will be taken offline soon. Or it's possible that it is going live today in other Nokia markets, or maybe even Sprint-wide where two B41 channels are live.

 

Camcroz reported to S4GRU he was able to keep B41 2xCA while travelling down Highway 400 near Avalon Mall in Alpharetta all the way across most of Atlanta, losing it as he approached the Hartsfield/Jackson International Airport where he ended up on Clear B41 single carrier.

 

The picture below represents the member's findings. He reports that he had 94Mbps Down in his best test. He had to manually enable Carrier Aggregation himself on his GS6 using ##DATA#. Sprint devices currently have it disabled automatically. They will likely push an update in the future to enable it for customers.

 

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This is two 20MHz TDD-LTE B41 carriers connected together via Carrier Aggregation (noted as 2xCA). Sprint says it will not be until 2016 before they have devices released and the network prepared for 3xCA (three 20MHz carriers aggregated together).

 

Let us know if you are able to find any 2xCA in your neck of the woods. Report your findings in the comments below or in an appropriate S4GRU forum thread. Viva la Carrier Aggregation!!!

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Question, I have a m9 in San Bernardino and want to test this.what settings do I need to edit in data screen? Or do u have ant anything I can read on setting it up on the m9?

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Will Sprint do carrier aggregation for other bands, or just B41 20x20 & 20x20 (what a huge pipeline...crazy!).

 

They might at some point in the future.  But their current LTE B25/B26 installs do not support Carrier Aggregation.  If they upgrade it to a newer release, then they could.

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Sprint has already ask for Band 25 CA to be added in 3GPP release 11 equipment along with AT&T and Verizon for release 11 and 12 similar request for release 11 and 12 from October 2014. See the below link:

 

http://cdn.rohde-schwarz.com/pws/dl_downloads/dl_application/application_notes/1ma232/1MA232_1E_LTE_Rel11.pdf

 

NOTE: There is mention on page 29 of what Sprint may do with LTE Band 41 when Clearwire is shutdown in November opening up that spectrum for Release 12 three carrier CA since the highest carrier channel spectrum can be used is 20Mhz.

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See https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2015/02/18/introducing-snapdragon-lte-modems-and-modem-classes

 

Until Qualcomm announce a new version chipsets next year,  as long as Apple and Samsung stays with Qualcomm LTE modem or their processor with built-in LTE modem , Samsung is stuck with two carrier Carrier Aggregation (CA) unless they use X12 chipset. We assume Apple will go with x12 chipset in the future iphone 7 since it will  be more than year since Qualcomm announced it. This is just to get three carrier CA either with Sprint or others (AT&T and overseas carriers) since CA limit is <=20Mhz per carrier. 

 

One will hope that with each cellular vendor hoping they can use three carrier CA, that in itself will increase the bandwidth for single carrier channel if they update to 3GPP release 10 infrastructure. That specification allows for an increase of "bandwidth" from 16bps/hertz to 30bps/hertz. So without CA, just having new 3GPP release >=10 infrastructure and devices that support this specification will increase throughput before adding CA. Currently all the US vendors are only using CA option of specification to increase speed until newer infrastructure can be deployed.

 

See vendor's netgear hotspot specifications below 

    AT&T Unite Pro (781S) is only using the download only CA option of 3GPP release 10

    Verizon's AC791L is using release 9 (I think this is documentation mistake since CA is not in 3GPP release 9)

 

but Samsung Galaxy 6 has a 3GPP Release 11 mandatory features

 Qualcomm LTE modem

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