Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Qualcomm cites momentum for its 5G mmWave small cells platform

Qualcomm Technologies cited growing support for its 5G RAN platform (FSM100xx), which was first announced in May 2018 and it has since been adopted by many manufacturers and cellular infrastructure providers.

The platform support mmWave radio access for indoor and outdoor network densification.

“With the continued growth and adoption of our Qualcomm 5G RAN platform, Qualcomm Technologies aims to deliver cutting-edge 5G mmWave infrastructure technology to power 5G small cell and remote radio head infrastructure across the globe,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Combined with the power and flexibility to support virtual RAN and open radio access interfaces, our Qualcomm 5G RAN platform is designed to allow infrastructure providers the ability to solve pressing connectivity issues and give its users increased access to the reliable, robust and powerful mobile experiences enabled by 5G. We are pleased that leading 5G infrastructure innovators are choosing our Qualcomm 5G RAN platform for their network solutions, and we are excited by the opportunity ahead.”

Supporters include Airspan, Altiostar, Baicells, Corning, Radisys, Rakuten, Samsung, Sercomm, the Small Cell Forum, and Verizon.

Qualcomm intros 5G NR for Small Cells and Remote Radio Heads

Qualcomm introduced the first 5G NR solution for small cells and remote radio head deployments. The new device (FSM100xx), which builds on Qualcomm's FSM Platform for 3G and 4G small cells, support 5G NR in both mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum.

Qualcomm said its 5G NR solutions allows OEMs to reuse both software and hardware designs across sub-6 and mmWave products, supporting high-bandwidth and robust coverage for mobile subscribers around the globe. Given the propagation characteristics of 5G NR’s higher frequencies (especially mmWave), solutions are needed to support delivery of uniform 5G experiences, especially indoors where most data is consumed.

The FSM100xx solution scales to address outdoor small cell performance requirements such as support for MIMO implementation and multi-gigabit throughput, as well as support indoor requirements such as compact form factor and power over Ethernet (PoE) support. It also includes a software-defined modem, designed to facilitate OEMs to readily upgrade their devices to comply with future 3GPP releases. Additionally, this 5G NR solution supports various options for interface splits between central unit (CU) and remote radio head, providing OEMs and operators with the flexibility to use a 5G radio access network architecture that best fits their needs, such as a virtualized 5G architecture that is designed to deliver scalability through the cloud or a more distributed architecture to ease fronthaul requirements.