Actix, a specialist in automatic optimization (AO) solutions, has today announced advanced support for LTE network planning and deplyoment with the launch of its Radioplan 4G automatic cell planning and optimization solution.
Although already supporting standard implementations of LTE, the next release of Actix Radioplan will include a range of new 4G-specific features and advanced intellectual property that is claimed to be unique to Actix, and the availability of which will coincide with the official launch of the Actix AO Platform 5.0.
According to ABI Research, more than eighteen operators globally have now announced LTE deployment plans. As LTE moves from theory to practice, operators are planning how best to roll-out the new network so that they can deliver on the mobile broadband promise, including use of cell planning and optimization solutions.
"Radioplan 4G is a significant step up in terms of providing fast, accurate, and highly advanced automatic LTE network optimization functionality, which is based on the unique IPR gained through our work on EASY-C, the LTE advanced test network in Dresden, Germany," said Joerg Schueler, AO Product Director for Actix. "Radioplan 4G takes Actix well beyond the standard, basic implementations and confirms yet again our leadership in automatic cell planning and optimization solutions."
Easy-C (Enablers for Ambient Services and Systems – Part C) is a 4th generation network research group, founded in July 2007, to research and trial 4G wireless technology using a large-scale prototype network in Dresden, consisting of 30 cells and 10 base stations. As one of the key project partners, Actix has spent the last 18 months working on new algorithms and concepts which will enable much more efficient and effective planning and rollout of 4G networks.
"In the same way Actix Radioplan led the way for 3G automatic cell planning thanks to unique IPR like our patented pathloss tuning algorithms, we have been working on LTE for almost two years, quietly building up knowledge and know-how through projects like EASY-C, our own internal research and other private co-operations with advanced 4G companies. The result is that we're now ready to release a product that will stand out massively from the crowd of basic tools currently on the market," said Chris Larmour, Actix' Chief Marketing Officer.
Actix says its AO Platform 5.0 will include: new Radioplan 4G algorithms to enable the modelling and optimization of key MIMO-related parameters and conditions at optimization speeds 50 times faster than traditional cell planning and optimisation techniques; the ability to generate pathloss maps using common third party models without the need for an external planning tool; and a fully integrated Cellopt AFP module which streamlines the optimization process even further.
Actix will be demonstrating Actix AO Platform 5.0, including Radioplan 4G, for the first time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 16-19 February 2009.