Nokia and Sprint will showcase a 5G New Radio (NR) connection over a dual mode-capable Massive MIMO radio at this week's Mobile World Congress Americas in Los Angeles. The companies will use Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum, Nokia's commercial AirScale Base Station and Massive MIMO Active Antenna, and a VIAVI TM500 5G test device emulator.
Sprint plans to use its 2.5 GHz spectrum along with Massive MIMO technology for its mobile 5G launch in the first half of 2019.
The live 5G NR system connection uses a Massive MIMO Active Antenna and can support up to 120 MHz of spectrum in 2.5 GHz. The Nokia AirScale Massive MIMO Active Antenna is expected to deliver up to 3 Gbps peak downlink throughput for a single sector over 5G and LTE simultaneously using Sprint's spectrum. This enables Sprint to offer both 4G LTE and 5G on the same radio.
Dr. John Saw, Chief Technology Officer, Sprint, said: "Sprint has long collaborated with Nokia on its Massive MIMO and 5G innovations, and we're excited by this first live 5G NR system connection to help us bring mobile 5G to the U.S. market in the first half of 2019. Because of our large spectrum holdings Sprint is one of the only operators in the world with enough capacity to operate LTE and 5G simultaneously using Massive MIMO and huge licensed channels of 100 MHz of spectrum on the same radios."
Marc Rouanne, President of Mobile Networks, Nokia, said: "This joint 5G NR demonstration using Nokia's Massive MIMO technology is another proof point of our innovative work with Sprint as part of their Next-Gen Network strategy. The significant cell capacity Massive MIMO offers is why the technology is playing a central role in 5G, which will allow Sprint to provide increased coverage, reliability and speed across its nationwide network."
Sprint deploys 64T64R Massive MIMO antennas
Specifically, Sprint will deploy 64T64R (64 transmit, 64 receive) Massive MIMO radios using 128 antennas from Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung Electronics. The Massive MIMO radios from all three suppliers are software-upgradable to 5G without additional tower climbs. The Massive MIMO radios support split-mode service, enabling Sprint to offer both 4G LTE and 5G on the same radio.
Sprint customers using a 2.5 GHz (band 41) device in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles will begin seeing a significant bandwidth boost on the existing network in April thanks to the new equipment.
Massive MIMO deployments in additional markets including Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C. are planned for later this year.
“Massive MIMO is a game-changer for TDD-LTE networks that’s being used by leading operators around the world to deploy Gigabit LTE and 5G,” said Dr. John Saw, Sprint Chief Technology Officer. “For more than a year we’ve been testing this new technology, and in a few short weeks we’ll be bringing the power of Massive MIMO to Sprint customers beginning with some of the largest markets in the country.”
Sprint noted that it has 204 MHz of spectrum and more than 160 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 markets, giving it enough capacity to operate LTE and 5G simultaneously over 100-200 MHz on the same Massive MIMO radios.
