NEC to acquire Blue Danube for Massive MIMO 5G beamforming

NEC agreed to acquire Blue Danube Systems, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

Blue Danube has successfully demonstrated its Coherent Massive MIMO 5G beamforming technology in numerous trials around the world, delivering up to 3X capacity increases with first generation software in commercial mobile networks using existing mobile phones. The company says its Coherent Massive MIMO together with autonomous AI/ML beam optimization software will enable mobile network operators to improve overall multi-site performance in both FDD and TDD bands. 

Blue Danube has been shipping products commercially for over 5 years.

Mark Pinto, CEO of Blue Danube, said, “We are excited about joining the NEC team that is an Open RAN leader and recognized for its end-to-end Open 5G solutions and system integration capabilities. Becoming part of NEC enables Blue Danube to expand our 5G product offerings, and together we will bring ever more powerful hardware and software products based on O-RAN specifications to customers worldwide.”

http://www.bluedanube.com

• Blue Danube Systems was backed by Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake along with other investors including AT&T. 

Blue Danube announces coherent Massive MIMO

Wednesday, October 16, 2019  Blue Danube  

Blue Danube Systems announced its first Coherent Massive MIMO solution for TDD networks. Blue Danube said its approach to Massive MIMO starts by assuring RF array coherency which, in conjunction with digital processing, uniquely enables the definition, placement and dynamic coordination of high precision beams. These beams can be software controlled to direct RF energy towards high user-density areas, while minimizing adjacent sector interference,...

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Blue Danube demos FDD Massive MIMO in Clustered Multi-Sectors

Thursday, February 22, 2018  #MWC18, Blue Danube, MIMO  

Blue Danube Systems announced the commercial deployment of its massive MIMO solution to multiple clustered cell sites. Blue Danube has performed multi-sector beam optimization using its BeamCraft 500 Massive MIMO systems at two different sites within the FDD-LTE network at a US mobile operator. The company said that it has not been clearly proven until now that Massive MIMO is deployable beyond isolated high-demand sectors where effects such as...

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Blue Danube intros 96-element, Multiband, Massive MIMO Antenna

Tuesday, February 13, 2018  #MWC18, Blue Danube, Start-Ups  

Blue Danube Systems, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, introduced its 96-element, second-generation 5G-ready Massive MIMO system. Blue Danube's the BeamCraft 600 series supports simultaneous beamforming over multiple frequency bands and across multiple cellular standards, allowing operators to deliver increased capacity through a single compact system. The company said its Massive MIMO can dynamically direct radio frequency (RF) beams...

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Ericsson builds 12 kg Massive MIMO radio

Ericsson introduced its lightest and smallest Massive MIMO radio to date -- the 12 kg (26lb), 23 liters AIR 3268 radio. It offers 200W output power and features 32 transceivers and passive cooling. The radio weighs about 40 percent less than the earlier generation, making for easier installations on tower, rooftops, poles and walls.

Ericsson’s latest radio is 10 percent more energy-efficient than the earlier generation, lowering the total added power consumption when introducing 5G on mid-band. It also supports Ericsson’s unique Massive MIMO architecture and Uplink Booster capabilities that deliver leading network performance.

Ericsson has developed AIR 3268 in partnership with BT to address 5G challenges. Through the development process, the ultra-lightweight radio has been designed for 5G mid-band Massive MIMO performance to deliver the benefits of deployment simplicity and improved energy efficiency.

Greg McCall, Managing Director of Service Platforms, BT Group, says: “The 3.5 GHz band and Massive MIMO technology are important to our 5G network strategy to deliver the best customer experience in urban areas. We continue to add capacity within our market-leading 5G coverage, but to maximize our ability to deploy this technology, we need to minimize the burden on our site infrastructure."

David Hammarwall, Head of Product Line Radio, Ericsson, says: “We continue to revolutionize Massive MIMO with ultra-lightweight radios that allow easier site upgrades and more seamless 5G mid-band deployments. AIR 3268 widens the options for the radio site, allowing service providers to boost their networks and deliver faster 5G speeds and response times. It is also energy-efficient, which is important to us and our customers.”

https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2021/9/ericsson-launches-ultra-lightweight-air-3268-radio

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Huawei deploys massive MIMO in Chengdu airport

China Mobile has deployed Huawei's 5G distributed Massive MIMO solution inside Chengdu Tianfu International Airport to build the first Gigabit 5G airport in China. 

Huawei says the user-perceived rate across the check-in areas exceeds 1 Gbps, with the single-user rate increasing by 26% on average over common 5G networks up to a peak of 1.25 Gbps. Significant improvement was also displayed in both the perceived rate and overall network capacity in multi-user scenarios. 

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is the second international air hub in Southwest China's Sichuan Province and has the capacity to support 40 million passenger trips, 700,000 tons of cargo and mail, and 320,000 aircraft movements annually. 

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NEC announces new 5G massive MIMO radio units

NEC is launching new radio units (RU) for 5G base stations that are geared for global markets and are scheduled to be available in 2022.

NEC's new RUs will be compatible with the n77, n78 and C-Band 3.7GHz frequency band (3.3-4.2GHz), which is globally used as a 5G frequency. In addition, ultra-multi-element antennas utilizing Massive MIMO and digital beamforming for high-precision beams will help to provide high-speed, high-capacity communications between a wider range of terminals. 

The new RUsfeature higher output and wider bandwidth when compared to conventional products, thereby expanding the communications area and providing high-speed transmission.

The RUs will conform to O-RAN fronthaul interface specifications defined by the O-RAN Alliance and will be compatible with base station equipment from different vendors, making it possible to realize open, flexible and optimized networks according to a wide range of use cases.

Patrick Lopez, VP of product management, 5G products, NEC, said: “NEC has long been developing 5G base station equipment for global markets. As illustrated by the announcement from Vodafone earlier this month, NEC is investing to maintain a market-leading position in the Open RAN ecosystem."

https://www.nec.com/en/press/202106/global_20210623_02.html

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Ericsson hits 315 Mbps upload speed with 5G Massive MIMO

Ericsson hit a new benchmark for 5G with Massive MIMO by delivering a single user uplink data rate of 315 Mbps.

The new performance level opens the door for applications such as the sharing of 4K/8K video content captured by consumers with 5G mobile devices.

Ericsson reached near theoretical peak uplink single user throughput leveraging the SU-MIMO technology and uplink (UL) 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) in New Radio (NR) Standalone (SA) mode. This was built on top of Ericsson’s industry leading Uplink Booster implementation and the UL SU-MIMO algorithm automatically adapts the waveforms to further increase the coverage range. It provides the best combination of user data rate, cell capacity, interference suppression and capacity for the uplink.

Accomplished leveraging the 5G Distributed Innovation Network and with various Time Division Duplex (TDD) patterns in Ericsson’s North America headquarters in Plano, Texas, the demonstration reached a peak data rate of 315 Mbps. With a test license of 100 MHz from 3700 MHz to 3800 MHz and a mobile test device powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X60 5G Modem-RF System, Ericsson established a live C-Band network with a commercial 64T64R Advanced Antenna System (AAS) radio on the building rooftop, supported by 5G core software.

“We continue to accelerate 5G across many frontiers,” said Paul Challoner, Vice President of Networks Product Solutions, Ericsson North America. “Ericsson has the expertise and track record to offer the best performing 5G networks globally. We have demonstrated performance enhancements in the downlink and with this demonstration, we have now made a significant breakthrough in the uplink data rates, improving user experience when uploading data to the network.”

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/6/2021/4/ericsson-accelerates-5g-massive-mimo-single-user-uplink-data-rate-record

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Marvell and Samsung collaborate on Massive MIMO chip

Samsung Electronics and Marvell have  jointly developed a new System-on-a-Chip (SoC) to power Samsung’s Massive MIMO and other advanced radios.

The new SoC supports 5G and 4G networks simultaneously, and it can also save up to 70 percent in chipset power consumption compared to previous solutions.

“We are excited to extend our collaboration with Marvell to unveil a new SoC that will combine both companies’ strengths in innovation to advance 5G network solutions,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung prioritizes the development of high-impact 5G solutions that offer a competitive edge to our operators. We look forward to introducing this latest solution to the market shortly.”

Samsung and Marvell have been working closely to deliver multiple generations of leading network solutions. Last year, the companies announced a collaboration to develop new 5G products, including innovative radio architectures to address the compute power required for Massive MIMO deployments.

“Our collaboration with Samsung spans multiple generations of radio network products and demonstrates Samsung’s strong technology leadership. The joint effort includes 4G and 5G basebands and radios,” said Raj Singh, Executive Vice President of Marvell’s Processors Business Group. “We are again honored to work with Samsung for the next generation Massive MIMO radios which significantly raise the bar in terms of capacity, performance and power efficiency.”

https://news.samsung.com

Marvell partners with Samsung on RAN processing

Wednesday, March 04, 2020  Marvell, Samsung  

Marvell and Samsung Electronics Co. are extending their collaboration to include additional segments of the Radio Access Network (RAN). The solutions will build on the OCTEON Fusion platform and integrating Samsung’s unique intellectual property.

To date, the companies have worked closely to deliver multiple generations of baseband and transport processing solutions for base stations based on Marvell’s OCTEON and OCTEON Fusion processors.

In addition, the companies are collaborating on innovative radio unit architectures designed to meet the dramatic increase in compute power required for the complex beamforming algorithms inherent to massive MIMO deployments. 

“Samsung is committed to helping mobile operators meet their performance targets,” said Jaeho Jeon, executive vice president and head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.  “Our relentless spirit to find innovative ways to address the next set of 5G market challenges will drive us to enhance our 5G technical capabilities.  Marvell is a valued collaborator in helping us achieve these goals.”

“Marvell believes that close collaboration with Samsung has allowed both companies to excel in the 5G infrastructure market,” said Raghib Hussain, chief strategy officer and executive vice president of the Networking and Processors Group at Marvell.  “It is our goal to ensure that infrastructure equipment suppliers such as Samsung can allow network operators to thrive in the fast-paced world of 5G.”

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NEC triples number of connections in distributed-MIMO

NEC demonstrated multiple highly stable simultaneous terminal connections and transmission capacity through distributed-MIMO in the 28 GHz millimeter-wave frequency band. 

The company says its demonstration, which was conducted in a real world office environment, achieved approximately 3 times the number of simultaneous connections and transmission

capacity compared to cases without distributed-MIMO in the 28 GHzfrequency band. Moreover, transmission deterioration from obstacles was also reduced.

Earlier this year, Japan began to commercially deploy 5G in the sub 6 frequency band and millimeter-wave frequency band, with the expectation of enhancing network performance to support 10 times more capacity than 4G, as well as higher throughput, lower latency, and multiple connections.

NEC has been a pioneer in digital beamforming technology and has commercialized Massive-MIMO in the sub 6 frequency band. Moreover, NEC has developed digital coordination technology among antenna elements distributed in the millimeter-wave frequency band and conducted verification activities to solve the problems of indoor mobile communications, such as shadowing and diffraction of propagation paths.

https://www.nec.com/en/press/202101/global_20210125_01.html

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Huawei develops 5G Indoor Distributed Massive MIMO for China Unicom

Huawei has developed a 5G Indoor Distributed Massive MIMO solution for China Unicom Beijing's "5G Capital" initiative.

The 5G Indoor Distributed Massive MIMO solution is based on Huawei's 5G LampSite Digital Indoor System (DIS). It introduces the Massive MIMO technology to LampSite to form distributed Massive MIMO antenna arrays supporting up to 64T64R ability. Through dynamic coordination among multiple digital indoor headends, the capacity on indoor networks becomes scalable, self-adapting to changes in data traffic. In addition, compared with the cell splitting approach, both interference and manual commissioning costs are significantly reduced, while also effectively increasing 5G indoor spectral efficiency.

In the first year of 5G commercial deployment, China Unicom has successfully deployed 5G digital indoor systems in key scenarios across China's major cities.

Ritchie Peng, CMO of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, said: "Based on our long-term investment in indoor digitalization region, we released the full-scenario 5G DIS product and solutions in February 2020 to enable better indoor coverage and superior 5G networks. Faced with growing scalability demand for uplink and downlink capacity, we successfully introduced Massive MIMO technology to indoor networks in close collaboration with China Unicom. This technological breakthrough will substantially increase 5G capacity. We will continue to make technological innovations and develop leading solutions that address the exact requirements of customers."

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Bharti deploys Huawei's microwave for 1 Gbps backhaul links

Bharti India is deploying enhanced MIMO microwave links from Huawei.

The enhanced MIMO solution of 5G microwave will deliver 1Gbps capacity over a single 28Mhz channel.

Bharti India has deployed more than 100 hops of the enhanced MIMO microwave links.

Huawei said that by adding carrier aggregation technology to the enhanced MIMO link can increase capacity to 2Gbps MIMO link with additional 28Mhz spectrum.

Bharti relies heavily on microwave transmission for its network in India.

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Zain tests massive MIMO on TD-LTE using 2.6 GHz with Nokia

Zain KSA is testing a massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) pilot in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on its TD-LTE network using 2.6 GHz spectrum. The pilot uses Nokia's 5G-ready AirScale massive MIMO antenna for 4.9G calls to improve network capacity to provide speeds of above 700 Mbps per user.

Massive MIMO uses 64-Transmit-64-Receive (64T64R), which allows gigabit-level throughput. Nokia said its 5G-ready AirScale massive MIMO antenna paves the way for the transition to 5G and coexistence with LTE on the 2.6 GHz band, delivering better network capacity, improving coverage and significantly enhancing uplink and downlink speed.

Eng. Sultan Abdulaziz AlDeghaither, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia, said: "This pilot is a significant milestone in our journey towards 5G. The deployment of massive MIMO helps us meet our customers' evolving needs for the best experience even while using multiple bandwidth-hungry applications. As our longstanding partner, we are confident that Nokia's proven expertise will allow us to provide innovative use cases to Zain KSA's individual and enterprise customers."

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Sprint activates Samsung's massive MIMO

Sprint has activated Samsung's 5G-ready massive MIMO solutions on its production 2.5 GHz TDD-LTE network.

Samsung said its massive MIMO can provide a way for operators to inject new capacity into their network without having to purchase more spectrum or add new base stations. It is being used by Sprint to significantly boost LTE network speeds and capacity for millions of U.S. customers, while improving network efficiencies through advanced beam-forming. Additionally, this helps provide Sprint with a seamless upgrade path to 5G New Radio (NR), utilizing the carrier’s deep 2.5 GHz spectrum.

“We are excited to see Samsung MIMO solutions in use on Sprint’s current LTE commercial network, which will help their customers experience the full benefits of network innovation,” said Lyle Nyffeler, Vice President, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “Our MIMO solutions are engineered to maximize 4G networks today, while offering a graceful, seamless path to a 5G future.”

In February 2018, Sprint announced its selection of Samsung as a massive MIMO provider for their future 5G mobile network launch in the U.S..

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Sprint deploys 64T64R Massive MIMO antennas

Sprint is deploying Massive MIMO antennas as it prepares for a 5G rollout in the first half of 2019. Sprint expects to deploy thousands of Massive MIMO radios in 2018 and 2019, significantly increasing network capacity for millions of customers across the country.

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.

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Blue Danube demos FDD Massive MIMO in Clustered Multi-Sectors

Blue Danube Systems announced the commercial deployment of its massive MIMO solution to multiple clustered cell sites.

Blue Danube has performed multi-sector beam optimization using its BeamCraft 500 Massive MIMO systems at two different sites within the FDD-LTE network at a US mobile operator. The company said that it has not been clearly proven until now that Massive MIMO is deployable beyond isolated high-demand sectors where effects such as adjacent cell interference must be addressed. Its approach to Massive MIMO starts by assuring RF array coherency which in conjunction with digital processing uniquely enables the definition, placement and dynamic coordination of high precision beams that can be software engineered to minimize adjacent sector interference and actually improve clustered cell performance.

“We are excited to be the first in the industry to successfully demonstrate capacity improvement for clustered multi-sector Massive MIMO deployments,” said Mark Pinto, CEO of Blue Danube Systems. “Adding to our recent announcement of the first multi-band Massive MIMO products, we are making available powerful and flexible tools for operators to seamlessly insert 5G-ready technology into their existing LTE networks for substantial system-wide capacity gain.”

“Cell edge performance continues to be a major challenge for pure digital Massive MIMO systems,” said Shiv Panwar, Professor of Electrical Engineering at NYU and Director of the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications (CATT). “This is the very first demonstration of Massive MIMO performance in a clustered deployment. Blue Danube’s multi-sector BeamCraft results are very exciting and demonstrate that Massive MIMO is now viable for wide-scale adoption in FDD networks.”

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Verizon tests FDD Massive MIMO with Ericsson, Qualcomm

Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies conducted the first FDD Massive MIMO trial with a fully compatible customer device in December.

The test used the latest Ericsson Massive MIMO software and hardware on Verizon's network, along with a mobile test device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with X20 LTE using TM9 (Transmission Mode 9). TM9 is an enhancement for consumer devices that will make them fully compatible with Massive MIMO, enabling a better experience.

Verizon said the achievement builds on the momentum from the deployment of FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) Massive MIMO (Multiple Input – Multiple Output) on Verizon's wireless network in Irvine, California.

"Massive MIMO is a critical component of our 4G LTE Advancements and will play an important role in 5G technology that will result in single digit latency and scalability in the billions of connections," stated Nicola Palmer, Chief Network Engineer and Head of Wireless Networks, Verizon.

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ZTE and Softbank hit 956 Mbps on 20 MHz Massive MIMO

ZTE and SoftBank achieved a peak downstream rate of 956 Mbps on a 20MHz bandwidth in a trial of pre-5G TDD massive MIMO. The trial, which was conducted on Softbank's commercial network in Nagasaki, Japan, featured 24-stream space division multiplexing technology.

ZTE previously achieved a similar rate of 1.1Gbps in a 24-stream field test in Shenzhen, China that also used its Pre5G TDD Ma

ssive MIMO solution.

ZTE and SoftBank are also collaborating on a Smart Life strategic project for post-4G networks, including improvement of spectrum efficiency, 4G/5G network integration, mobile bandwidth, IoT, and Internet of Vehicles.

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ZTE and Singtel trial Pre5G massive MIMO

ZTE announced that it has partnered with Singtel to complete the live deployment of the 2.6 GHz Pre5G massive MIMO network at one Marina Bay site in Singapore to enhance Singtel's 4G user experience ahead of Singapore's National Day celebrations.

ZTE noted that its Pre5G massive MIMO is suitable for high-density scenarios and will be deployed to help guarantee service quality during the high data traffic volumes that will result from the crowd gathered at the location during Singapore National Day.

ZTE stated that after site commissioning, the Pre5G massive MIMO cell experienced a significant increase in throughput, shared the traffic volume of busy macro-station cells and enabled significantly improved network speed to user terminals, as well as an enhanced user experience and increased overall service throughput in the region.

Separately, Singtel announced plans to deploy massive MIMO technology on its commercial LTE-Advanced network and using recently acquired 2.5 GHz spectrum with the aim of enhancing data rates by up to 200% at special events for its customers.

Singtel stated that it will team with Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE to deploy massive MIMO technology at the Marina Bay area, and will initially roll out the technology for the forthcoming National Day celebrations, with further deployments planned for the Singapore F1 Night Race and the New Year countdown event.

Singtel noted that it has identified massive MIMO as one solution to address growth in data traffic volume, and that it will specifically use massive MIMO base stations with an array of 64 antennas designed to improve spectral efficiency and cell capacity. The new antenna system channels signals to users' specific locations instead of broadcasting across a wide area, so multiplying the number of data paths from the base stations.

Singtel currently provides Singapore’s fastest national mobile data speeds of 450 Mbit/s, and recently launched 800 Mbit/s speeds in selected high-traffic locations.

http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201708ma/0803ma2

https://www.singtel.com/about-us/news-releases

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Telkomsel and ZTE test FDD-LTE massive MIMO in Indonesia

ZTE announced that it has conducted what is believed to be the first FDD-LTE massive MIMO field trial in Indonesia in partnership with Telkomsel, the country's main mobile operator.

By deploying ZTE's FDD-LTE massive MIMO solution for the field trial, Telkomsel was able to achieve an almost four-fold increase in data throughput to 468 Mbit/s, compared to existing 2 x 2 MIMO FDD LTE network.

The field trial was conducted in Makassar, one of the largest and most densely-populated cities in eastern Indonesia and involved commercially-available TM9 handsets and MiFi units implemented in a simultaneous four handset/MiFi configuration, with 20 MHz of bandwidth.

The trial was designed to demonstrate the capabilities of FDD-LTE massive MIMO technology to enhance the performance of existing 4G LTE networks without the need for new user terminals. Telkomsel noted that the results of the trial will support its efforts on implement network equalisation in eastern Indonesia.

Following completion of the successful field trials, ZTE and Telkomsel have agreed to continue with the next phase of the trials to verify additional technical aspects including coverage, mobility and interference. The trials are intended to ensure the feasibility of the technology and its suitability for a wider rollout across the Telkomsel LTE network in Indonesia.

http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201707ma/0713ma1

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Sprint and Samsung test massive MIMO on 2.5 GHz

U.S. operator Sprint, a Softbank company, and Samsung Electronics announced that on the streets of the city of Suwon in South Korea they recently tested massive MIMO on 2.5 GHz spectrum in a real-world environment to support Sprint's efforts to increase LTE Plus wireless capacity and coverage and offer gigabit service to its customers.

During the field testing in Suwon, massive MIMO Samsung radios, equipped with vertical and horizontal beamforming technology, achieved peak speeds of 330 Mbit/s per channel using a 20 MHz channel of 2.5 GHz spectrum. The companies stated that capacity per channel increased approximately four-fold, cell edge performance increased three times and the overall coverage area expanded compared with current radios.

Sprint has deployed 8T8R (8 transmit, 8 receive) radios across its U.S. network, and the test with Samsung was designed to compare the performance of massive MIMO radios with 8T8R radios. The test cases and requirements were jointly developed by Sprint and Samsung and included a variety of performance scenarios involving multi-user and non-stationary testing.

For the tests, Samsung provided the massive MIMO network infrastructure as well as test network design, operation, data collection and processing. Both companies plan to use the results of the testing to prepare for the commercial deployment of massive MIMO in the U.S. and in other markets globally.

Samsung noted that massive MIMO radios involve the use of more antenna elements, for example, 64T64R uses 128 antenna elements, whereas 2T2R/4T4R/8T8R configurations are used in a typical 4G LTE network. The massive MIMO antennas also use advanced horizontal and vertical beamforming technology to focus and transmit cellular signals into targeted locations. This enables more efficient use of spectrum to deliver faster speeds and higher data capacity in high-traffic locations.

Sprint plans to deploy massive MIMO radios with 128 antenna elements (64T64R) using its 2.5 GHz spectrum in cities across the U.S. to increase capacity by up to eight-fold. In March, Sprint became the first U.S. carrier to introduce gigabit-class LTE on a live commercial network with a launch in New Orleans.

In New Orleans, Sprint implemented three-channel carrier aggregation and 60 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum, combined with 4 x 4 MIMO and 256QAM higher order modulation to achieve Category 16 LTE download data speeds over a TDD network. With massive MIMO radios using 64T64R, Sprint expects to be able to deliver capacity beyond 1 Gbit/s and reach between 3 and 6 Gbit/s bandwidth per sector.

http://newsroom.sprint.com/?INTNAV=Footer:NewsCenter

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Huawei demonstrates 6 Gbit/s downlink in China's 5G R&D testing

Huawei announced that it has completed China's second phase 5G radio technology test in Huairou District, Beijing organised by IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group, during which as part of C-Band testing it employed 5G New Radio, massive MIMO and other technologies utilising the entire 200 MHz bandwidth to enable over 6 Gbit/s of single-user downlink throughput and over 18 Gbit/s peak cell rate.

Huawei noted that its 5G test terminal was utilised for radio technology verification, enabling over 100 channels of on demand 4K UHD video in a single 5G base station. As part of the demonstration, 4K video was reliably delivered for vehicle-mounted mobile scenarios, illustrating the capabilities of 5G C-Band enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB).

Huawei stated that it is the first to complete testing of 5G network slicing technology for diverse service requirements in three typical scenarios. Network slices allow flexible configuration with a high degree of cooperation between the air interface and network to enable a secure user experience. As a result, a range of services are available on a single network with air interface latency of less than 0.5 ms and over 4 million single-cell connections, exceeding ITU 5G requirements.

Huawei has now completed large-scale service verification based on a live network and service environment ahead of schedule, marking a key milestone as part of China's 5G R&D test and representing a further advance for 5G industrialisation.

During the test procedures, Huawei noted that it implemented interoperability tests involving radio frequency and interworking functions working with upstream and downstream vendors. Specifically, Huawei partnered with instrument vendors Rohde & Schwarz, Keysight Technologies and DT Link Tester, chipset vendors Spreadtrum Communications and MediaTek, together with other companies.

http://www.huawei.com/en/news

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Russia's MTS and Ericsson Demo 25G in 5G testing

MTS, a major telco in Russia and the CIS serving over 100 million subscribers, and Ericsson announced that during trials of 5G technology they achieved claimed record data transmission rates of up to 25 Gbit/s using a portable prototype of a smartphone, representing an advance on previous 5G trials that involved only stationary devices.

The testing was conducted by Ericsson and MTS at the Opening Arena stadium in Moscow, where a base station operating in the range of 14.5 to 15.3 GHz transmitted a signal to a portable prototype of a subscriber' device at the speeds of up to 25 Gbit/s. During the trials, MTS and Ericsson tested 5G technology in a range of scenarios requiring high bandwidth and low latency, such as 4K video streaming, virtual reality services and remote robot control over a mobile network.

The latest trials featured technologies including:

1.         Multi-user and massive MIMO with an array of transmit-receive antennas, including serving multiple subscribers in one sector of a cell over the same frequency band.

2.         Beam tracking, designed to provide user devices with a stable, reliable connection and the optimum throughput performance when on the move.

3.         Dynamic TDD, which enhances the data transfer rate and efficiency of wireless network resource utilisation by dynamically redistributing the bandwidth when transmitting traffic in the downlink and upstream channels.

Ericsson noted that the trials were conducted as part of its strategic partnership with MTS established in December 2015. Under the agreement, Ericsson and MTS planned to cooperate on 5G R&D in Russia, encompassing areas including spectrum studies of the next generation network and implementation of a test system.

Subsequently, in June 2016 the companies tested LTE-U (LTE-Unlicensed), demonstrating the aggregation of two frequency bands, 10 MHz in the 1800 MHz band of LTE and 20 MHz in the unlicensed 5 GHz band at WiFi access points, demonstrating data rates of 200 Mbit/s.

Also in June last year, the companies signed a 3 year agreement for the supply of software for the modernisation of the MTS network, to include implementing IoT technology and testing extended GSM technology (EC-GSM-IoT).

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mts-and-ericsson-secure-new-record-data-speed-for-russia-during-5g-test-619936003.html

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