Qualcomm Making Progress in MulteFire, a Form of LTE-Unlicensed
Qualcomm made the world’s first over-the-air connection via MulteFire using listen-before-talk (LBT) technology, it said Monday. MulteFire is a form of LTE unlicensed that operates only in unlicensed spectrum and doesn't require a control channel anchored in a licensed band…
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(see 1506220058). Qualcomm unveiled the technology last year (see 1506100057). It demonstrated that MulteFire, “with full co-existence capability in operation at all times, can provide LTE-like performance while fairly co-existing with Wi-Fi on the same 5 GHz channel in unlicensed spectrum,” Qualcomm said in a news release. Similar to licensed assisted access (LAA) and enhanced LAA, “MulteFire is inherently designed to share the unlicensed spectrum fairly with Wi-Fi and other technologies by using the LBT standard,” Qualcomm said. “Leveraging LTE technology in unlicensed spectrum brings enhanced performance to MulteFire users that will experience better capacity, improved coverage and seamless mobility.” Nearby Wi-Fi connections get better performance than with another Wi-Fi station as a neighbor, the company said. The FCC recently authorized the first device that uses LAA (see 1609260074); it was built by Qualcomm. "Most Wi-Fi users are less concerned about MulteFire," said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. "Unlike LTE-U and LAA, the incentives to avoid a tragedy of the unlicensed commons are far more aligned with Wi-Fi and other existing unlicensed operations. LTE-U is restricted to carriers, for asymmetric download-only use, and with control channels insulated from interference on licensed spectrum. In contrast, MulteFire is a purely Part 15 technology potentially useable by anyone and will presumably have greater incentives to co-exist with Wi-Fi."