LG Uplus, Korea’s third largest mobile carrier, and Huawei, a leading Chinese telecommunication equipment and solutions provider, said Wednesday that they will use WDM/OTN technology for common public radio interface (CPRI) backhaul on LG Uplus’ LTE-A network.

They said this marks the world’s first breakthrough in the field of LTE-A backhaul technology.

The CPRI-over-WDM/OTN solution enables pooled baseband processing for distributed base stations, saving fiber resources and improving network reliability.

LG Uplus extensively adopts pooled baseband processing for distributed base stations on its LTE-A network, to maximize bandwidth and spectrum efficiency, minimize interference caused by coverage overlaps, and secure less footprint.

It is estimated that a centralized baseband processing pool in dense metropolitan areas should connect to over 100 remote radio units.

Traditionally, the RRUs are directly connected to the pool using fibers. This requires considerable fiber resources and does not allow service protection configurations.

Since last year the Korean mobile carrier and the Chinese firm have been ramping up their cooperation as they sought to seal a series of deals for network equipment for LG’s base stations. 

However, their relations have drawn criticism due largely to rumors that Huawei’s network equipment is vulnerable to security and that it could be used by the Chinese government for spying.

By Kim Young-won and Park Hyong-ki 

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)(wone0102@heraldcorp.com">hkp@heraldcorp.com)(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)