This joint software innovation is supposed to end the time-division duplexing (TDD) interference resulting from atmospheric ducting in coastal and desert regions in the country.

Atmospheric ducting is a meteorological phenomenon that largely affects electromagnetic wave propagation, which affects cellular connectivity.

TDD is a duplexing advanced technology where communication is divided based on time.

A new software algorithm named Adaptive Interference Free (AIF) has been developed and deployed to tackle the long-standing issue of TDD interference resulting from atmospheric ducting, which is a dominant problem in coastal and desert regions.

Atmospheric ducting causes TDD remote interference over distances from 50 to 200 kilometres, representing a major challenge to mobile network operations.

This interference can cause degradation in user experience and network capacity reduction.  

“Integrating AIF has allowed us to significantly improve network performance and capacity, overcoming one of the most persistent challenges in our market – mobile spectrum interference,” said Catalin Buliga, CTO of Vodafone Egypt.

Vodafone Egypt had previously announced its partnership with Ericsson to establish the world’s first triple-band mobile radio unit which will enable combining the 1800 MHz, 2100 FDD, and 2600 TDD frequency bands operating in Egypt into one single radio unit.

This will in turn decrease the network rollout cost, time of implementation, tower load, and consumption of energy.