Nokia Siemens and Qualcomm show multiflow bandwidth multiplier
Smartphones can receive data from more than one base station at a time, claim vendors
By Mikael Ricknäs | Published: 10:23, 21 February 2012
Nokia Siemens Networks and Qualcomm are planning to demo a feature that will allow users to receive data from two base stations at the same time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The feature is called HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access) multiflow and enables the transmission of two data streams from base stations in two adjacent cells to a single user device. Overall, this can up to double throughput data speeds for users at cell edge, Nokia Siemens said without elaborating on the real world numbers.
Today, users receive data using one data stream from one base station. For users to take advantage of the multiflow feature, networks and modems or smartphones both have to be upgraded, according to Nokia Siemens.
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The demonstration at Mobile World Congress will be conducted using a commercial base station from Nokia Siemens and prototype USB dongles from Qualcomm. They will be connected using a radio frequency network emulator.
The multiflow feature is still under development, and is expected to be standardised by mid-2012 by the 3GPP. It will then become commercially available on base stations from Nokia Siemens by the second half of 2013, according to the vendor.
Mobile World Congress runs from February 27 to March 1.
