Ericsson, working with AT&T and MediaTek, has completed North America's first in-field trial of Ericsson Low-Latency Mobility (LTM), demonstrating Layer 1/Layer 2 (L1/L2) Triggered Mobility on the AT&T network using Ericsson Radio Access Network (RAN) technology.

The trial evaluated Ericsson's LTM feature set, part of the company's 5G Advanced Critical IoT offering, which is designed to reduce service interruption during handovers between cells. Unlike conventional Layer 3 mobility procedures, LTM enables mobility decisions to occur closer to the radio layer, shortening interruption time as devices move across the network.

Field testing showed that LTM reduced data interruption during cell changes by up to 25% compared with legacy Layer 3 mobility procedures. Shorter interruption times can improve session continuity for latency-sensitive applications while supporting more consistent throughput for devices in motion.

The technology is intended to enhance mobility performance for applications requiring continuous connectivity, including extended reality (XR), cloud-based services, immersive video conferencing, industrial automation, and mission-critical communications. By reducing interruption during handovers, the feature also supports more deterministic network behavior for connected devices operating across multiple cells.

As AI-enabled applications increasingly rely on continuous edge and cloud connectivity, minimizing mobility-related disruption becomes increasingly important. Workloads such as edge-assisted perception, industrial automation, connected vehicle analytics, and real-time XR processing depend on predictable latency and uninterrupted data exchange as devices move through the network.

The trial was conducted using Ericsson as the radio access network vendor, with MediaTek providing device platform support and AT&T hosting the field deployment. Ericsson has been a leading contributor to the development and standardization of Layer 1/Layer 2 Triggered Mobility within 3GPP, where the technology has been developed as part of the evolution of 5G Advanced mobility capabilities.

The companies said the trial demonstrates the operational potential of LTM as operators prepare to deploy additional 5G Advanced capabilities that improve mobility performance, service continuity, and support emerging latency-sensitive applications.

Source: Ericsson

Stay Connected with ISE Magazine 

Subscribe to our newsletters and magazine for the latest telecom insights, explore the current issue for in-depth features and strategies, and register for upcoming webinars to learn directly from industry leaders.