The problem
Network saturation has long been a major issue for mobile operators. The upsurge of data usage has been driven by the growing popularity and affordability of smartphones and other devices. Consumers have enthusiastically embraced their mobile device as the primary screen to consume data, video and apps. But users continue to experience the daily annoyances of mobile life — dropped calls, network shutdowns, slow upload and download speeds, limited battery life, just to name a few.
Wireless network capacity is limited by the interference caused when many users are using the network at the same time. In order to control the interference, it is critical that the transmitted power is the minimum required to make the call go through, be heard, have the highest quality transmission, and so forth.
The problem resides in the Outer Loop Power Control, or OLPC. The OLPC acts like a thermostat to ensure the quality of service in voice and data communication. Essentially, it is the ability of the UE transmitter to set its output power to a specific value. It is used for setting initial uplink and downlink transmission power when a UE is accessing the network. It sets the SIR (Signal-to-Interference Ratio) target that should reach the inner loop and sets the required quality for the communication.
The receptor compares the measured quality with the target quality. If the measured quality is lower than the target quality, the outer loop increases the SIR (Signal-to-Interference Ratio) target. If the measured quality is higher than the target quality, the outer loop decreases the SIR target. The quality criterion is the Block Error Rate (BLER).
The BLER criterion is easy to measure: it simply needs to analyze the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of each block. But it takes a long time: the duration will be of the same order of magnitude as the time between errors. The higher the quality (lower BLER), the greater the time required to measure the quality. Unfortunately propagation conditions change rapidly in mobile communications. Since propagation conditions change rapidly AND measuring the BLER takes a long time, the BLER-based OLPC is inherently slow. It would be like the thermostat measuring ambient air – if it takes too long to measure, the thermostat will not adjust in time to make you feel the desired temperature that you set. You’ll be uncomfortably hot or cold in the given moment.
The opportunity
The fact remains that as-yet unforeseen new technologies and services will continue to burden the networks. The explosion of new mobile devices presents both a challenge and a huge business opportunity for operators. Operators, chipset manufacturers and handset developers that address and solve the capacity problem and improve the mobile user experience will be well-positioned to capture this opportunity — and earn consumer loyalty.
InToTally’s Solution – ToT-OLPC™
InToTally was granted four international fundamental wireless patents for the Outer Loop Power Control algorithm in the ToT-OLPC technology. A 100% software solution, ToT-OLPC upgrades do not require additional hardware in handsets, mobile devices or cellular base stations.
The telecom marketplace stands to gain wide-ranging and significant benefits from ToT-OLPC technology solution. Carriers benefit from increased revenues, better margins, reduced capital expenditures and lower subscriber turnover. Mobile device manufacturers who implement InToTally’s technology in their products will be able to deliver superior voice and data performance to their customers, and increase their ability to sell-through to operators. Mobile chipset manufacturers will be able to offer better quality of service and improved handset network capability – thus increasing market share promoted by the carrier.
And consumers will experience improved mobile device performance, more reliable wireless data connections, longer battery life on handsets and other mobile devices, and potentially reduced data connectivity costs as network capacity improvements increase the available supply of mobile bandwidth.