Nokia, Qualcomm and Alphabet have demonstrated a private LTE network using 3.5 GHz spectrum in the US. The companies are all founding members of the CBRS Alliance, set up to take advantage of the spectrum designated by the FCC for shared, unlicensed use in the 3.5 GHz band, known as Citizens Broadband Radio Service. The partners built the network at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and also used the demo to show off 360-degree video streaming of the in-car experience on the race track.
Nokia said CBRS makes possible private LTE networks, as it eliminates the cost of acquiring spectrum rights. The demo shows it also works at extreme race car speeds, provides exceptional outdoor coverage and dedicated capacity that can be customized to meet the needs of a particular service such as video streaming.
Using Nokia's TD-LTE radio platform the private LTE network used CBRS base stations to cover the complete track and spectator area. CBRS spectrum for the base stations was provisioned by the Access SAS (Spectrum Access System), a database set up by the FCC to help coordinate shared use of the band, and the 360-degree virtual reality video was streamed in real time using YouTube Live Events. The network was customized to provide high uplink data rate on the race track and high downlink data rate in the spectator area and very low latency between the car (travelling at over 180 mph) and the network.
The in-car connectivity for the trial was enabled by a Qualcomm Snapdragon LTE modem. The modem supports up to 4x downlink CA, 2x uplink CA, all 3GPP-approved bands, including 3.5GHz bands 42 and 43, and 4x4 MIMO.
