Alcatel-Lucent is planning to blend the advantages of Wi-Fi with those of LTE to improve mobile experience.
The company has unveiled ‘Wireless Unified Networks’ which combine the upload and download capabilities of Wi-Fi and cellular technologies to boost mobile performance.
Alcatel-Lucent says the technology will offer consistent and higher-quality mobile voice, data and video experience in high-traffic or low-signal locations.
Alcatel-Lucent Small Cells vice president Mike Schabel said, "As an industry we have historically treated cellular and Wi-Fi as unique technologies.
"For example, the industry debates the merits of Voice/Data over Wi-Fi versus Voice/Data over LTE. From a consumer perspective, it should simply be just Wireless.
"With Wireless Unified Networks, we are excited to be taking the important steps to transform and greatly enhance the user’s wireless experience in the home, at work, and in dense venue networks by combining existing Wi-Fi and cellular networks into one high performance network."
The technology will combine the downlink of Wi-Fi with the uplink of cellular which can be done with an update to the OS in the user devices that can facilitate both cellular and Wi-Fi transmission.
It also needs a software update in the network to blend the Wi-Fi and cellular access networks into a unified network
The company claims that the technique will increase download speeds by up to 70% and increase upload speeds by an order of magnitude or more (compared to standalone Wi-Fi at the cell edge), while also doubling the Wi-Fi range.
The company will trial the technology in the second quarter of 2015 with commercial availability scheduled in the second half of 2015.
