For the rest of the Q2 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here HFR, a Korean specialist in Optical and Radio Networking technologies, presented its newest In-building DAS, C-RAN Fronthaul and Carrier Ethernet solutions at Mobile World Conference (MWC) 2015. 1. In-building DAS HFR unveiled uRadioTM (DRS product), an upgraded version of its precedent In-buil...

As noted in the previous post, currently there are two types of user authentication in the Wi-Fi networks operated by Korean operators: IEEE 802.1X-based and captive portal-based authentication. 802.1X-based authentication targets primarily mobile devices with an operator's USIM card, whereas captive portal-based authentication to be discussed here is used to attract users without a permane...

[Netmanias] Dr. Heung-Ryeol You, General Manager at KT's Network Strategy BU, is in charge of spectrum strategies, and is sharing here what he learned at the 21st ITU-R WP 5D meeting closed early February. One of the main topics at the meeting was the 8 key parameters for 5G. Below let's see what has been discussed at the meeting. Before we begin, we would like to thank Dr. You for shar...

For the rest of the Q2 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here Contents 1. Background of Antenna-Integrated RRH 2. Features of Antenna-Integrated RRH 3. Outlook for the Antenna-Integrated RRH Market 4. Installation Issues in the Small Cell Market * RRA is a brand name of antenna-integrated RRH by the author's company 1. Background of Antenna-...

We will talk about call flow in IEEE 802.1X-based user authentication used in Korean network operators' Wi-Fi networks. Before we continue, let's take a look at what Korean operators' current Wi-Fi authentication are like first. KT provides the following SSIDs in its Wi-Fi Hotspots: ollehWiFi (with lock icon): Users are authenticated based on the IMSI stored in USIM of their...

For the rest of the Q1 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here 3. 5G Strategies by LG U+ LG U+, acknowledging service as a more important factor in 5G than speed, is putting more efforts into developing differentiated services than mere technologies competition. That is, it is taking a stance that it would develop 5G services first, and then take care of t...

For the rest of the Q1 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here 2. 5G Strategies by SK Telecom Immediately after KT announced its new vision GiGAtopia in May, 2014, SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile operator in Korea, also presented ICTnomics (ICT + Economics) designed to integrate ICT into a wide range of industries as the core concept of its 30-year growth plan....

The current systems that we are using now, like 3GPP LTE or LTE-A, are commonly called 4G mobile communication systems. Then, what are 5G mobile communication systems? To discuss 5G, we should first look into what the mega trends in mobile services are these days. [M1. Traffic growth] The biggest trend would be soaring demands for multimedia and social network services witnessed recently. As...

For the rest of the Q1 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here In Korea, LTE service began back in July 2011. Then in June 2013 when LTE subscription exceeded 40% of the nation's total mobile subscription, LTE-A was commercialized for the first time in the world. Here are some facts about Korea's LTE. As of December 2014, i) Korea recorded an LTE sub...

Executive Summary The MetroEthernet Forum (MEF) has defined and promoted Carrier Ethernet, a set of Ethernet-based carrier services. These services allow subscribers such as enterprises, research institutions, schools, and wireless carriers to achieve Ethernet-based connectivity over a wide-area network. Network Interface Devices (often called NIDs) are becoming the norm at the User-Network I...

This article was published in Korea Communication Review magazine (KCR Q1 2015). For the rest of the Q1 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here The 'giga Internet era' has just begun, finally offering speeds of 1 Gbps - 10 times faster than the 100Mbps. For the past 7 ~ 8 years, the maximum Internet speeds for all access networks (FTTH, LAN and XDS...

Carrier Ethernet 2.0 Revolution – Seoul Korea Date: December 10, 2014 Location: Seoul, Korea Hosted by HFR and SDH This seminar from the MEF brings a new local and global perspective on the world’ most successful network service deployment over the last decade: Carrier Ethernet. It features an in depth look at Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) services,...

Carrier Ethernet 2.0 Revolution – Seoul Korea Date: December 10, 2014 Location: Seoul, Korea Hosted by HFR and SDH This seminar from the MEF brings a new local and global perspective on the world’ most successful network service deployment over the last decade: Carrier Ethernet. It features an in depth look at Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) services,...

This article was published in Korea Communication Review magazine (KCR Q1 2015). For the rest of the Q1 2015 issue of Korea Communication Review magazine please click here 1. What is "LTE-Unlicensed"? And what's the big deal about it? 2. Korean Operators' Position (KT, SK Telecom and LG U+) 3. Discussion on Regulatory Requirements 4. LTE Advocates vs. Wi-Fi Advocates 1. W...

SK Broadband & SK Telecom (SK) introduced various gigabit Internet access network solutions at the World IT Show 2014 held in Busan on October 20th. SK noted that the new solutions will be able to provide a bidirectional Internet speed of 1 Gbps per user. The company has been offering Internet services including LAN, FTTH, HFC and XDSL to its 4.7 million subscribers. At the show, the compan...

LG U+ unveiled its gigabit Internet access network solution at the World IT Show 2014 held in Busan on October 20th. The new solution is said to be capable of supporting bidirectional Internet speed of 1 Gbps per user. Unlike its competitors, KT or SKB, the company offers LAN, FTTH and HFC services only, and not XDSL. At the show, LG U+ gave a demonstration of the technology and equipment...

Earlier in May, KT's Chairman Chang-gyu Hwang announced the company's GiGAtopia vision (see What's GiGAtopia envisioned by Chairman Chang-gyu Hwang of KT?). Then soon in June, KT made another announcement that it would commercialize gigabit Internet service in the second half of the year. So, it has been predicted that the company would begin the service probably at the end of t...

3. RAN Architecture Evolution Strategies SK Telecom introduced C-RAN right from the very early stages of the LTE service commercialization (January 2012) as an effort to achieve higher mobile network operation efficiency and more cost savings. As a result, most of the company's RAN is now in C-RAN architecture, where macro BBUs are separated from RRHs, and moved to centralized locations...

2. Inter-cell Coordination Evolution Strategies CA improves network capacity by broadening frequency bandwidth, whereas inter-cell coordination technologies do the same task by enhancing frequency efficiency. Inter-cell coordination is designed to manage radio resources more efficiently by having cells in different sites share user and/or cell information with each other. Inter-cell coo...

SK Telecom is the #1 mobile operator in Korea, with sales of KRW 16.6 trillion (USD 15.3 billion) in 2013, and with 50.1% of a mobile mobile subscription market share in 2Q 2014. It launched LTE service back in July 2011, and now more than half of its subscribers are LTE service subscribers, with 55.8% of LTE penetration as of 2Q 2014. Due to LTE subscription growth, more advanced device feat...