Huawei's Innovative 9-Sector Solution Increases Network Capacity to 2.5 Times of 3-Sector's

[Shenzhen, China, December 14, 2015] Recently, Huawei officially releases the innovative 9-sector solution that uses spatial multiplexing to improve network capacity and coverage after successful field trials on networks of operators in Myanmar and Thailand. The trials' results show that the 9-sector solution increases the network capacity to 2.5 times of the original 3-sector site without adding any site or spectrum and efficiently guarantees quality experience in high-traffic urban areas.

As mobile broadband (MBB) continues to rapidly develop, operators are facing daunting capacity challenge to accommodate increased MBB demand. It's even worse for high-traffic urban areas where MBB traffic is suppressed due to capacity constraints, making it difficult to guarantee the quality of service for each mobile user. Traditional capacity expansion ways such as adding new site or spectrum are out of option for operators as new site acquisition is difficult and spectrum resources are limited.

To address such challenges, Huawei introduces the innovative 9-sector solution to boost network capacity in high-traffic urban areas so as to guarantee quality user experience. Through self-developed three-beam high-gain antennas, the 9-sector solution uses spatial multiplexing and innovative algorithms to split each of the 120 degree sectors into three 40 degree sectors horizontally. The network capacity is increased to 2.2~2.7 times of the original 3-sector site and coverage is improved by 2~3 dB as three sectors can cover the area that used to be covered by only one sector.

Huawei's 9-sector solution outperforms the traditional 9-sector solution in terms of network performance, deployment efficiency, and software features. Leveraging the strength in antenna technology, the three-beam split antennas for 9-sector solution allows for side-lobe suppression with less interference thus improving both capacity and coverage. In addition, Huawei provides end-to-end professional tools to accurately identify and plan target sites for capacity expansion and automatically optimize the relevant neighbor cell parameters, thereby ensuring fast and efficient deployment and stable network key performance indicators (KPIs).

"Huawei relentlessly focuses on developing solutions for the challenges faced by operators as well as the ongoing requirements of the MBB era," said Peng Honghua, President of Huawei's Wireless UMTS Product Line, "9-sector solution will further help more operators maximize the network spectrum utilization and build more competitive networks to provide superior user experience."

Huawei's multi-sector solution includes diversified solutions such as 6-sector and 9-sector for different application scenarios. Huawei's 6-sector solution has been deployed by over 70 operators globally and the 9-sector solution will be commercialized soon. In the future, continuous innovations in the multi-sector solution will further help operators efficiently increase network capacity to accommodate both the ongoing growth in the subscriber base as well as accelerating levels of data growth.