HAL is major beneficiary of latest Indian procurement approvals
India has approved millions of dollars in new military purchases, most of which will go to public sector companies.
TECHNOLOGY TRACKER: Vodafone cellular hits 16Mbit/sec in trial
The evolution of cellular technology towards data rates in the tens and hundreds of megabits continues apace, with leading operator Vodafone reporting that it has achieved peak download rates of up to 16Mbit/sec in a trial.
The mark was reached in a recent trial of GSM-based HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) on Vodafone Spain’s network. The operator was supported by technology providers Ericsson and Qualcomm.
The next evolutionary step in the GSM roadmap, HSPA+ increases performance through the use of a more advanced modulation technique called 64QAM. Performance can be further enhanced through the use of multiple antennas on both base stations and user devices (Multiple Input Multiple Output, MIMO).
Aiming to push data rates well beyond the offered by second-generation technologies like GPRS (56kbit/sec) and EDGE (1Mbit/sec), HSPA comprises three standards – High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) and HSPA+. The first wave of HSDPA networks – there are approaching 200 in the world – supports rates in the 3.6-7.2Mbit/sec range.
Vodafone plans this year to trial HSPA with MIMO in pursuit of peak rates of up to 21Mbit/sec. The company says that a typical operational network could deliver video download at more than 13Mbit/sec in good conditions and an average of more than 4Mbit/sec across a full range of typical cell locations, including urban environments. Vodafone says that if the trial is a success it plans to make the technology available in selected networks.
Cambridge-based consultancy Analysys Mason estimated last year that HSPA and HSPA+ would support 54 per cent of all wireless broadband users at the end of 2015 despite the advent of technologies like WiMAX and the 100Mbit/sec-rated Long Term Evolution (LTE) strain of GSM.
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