This article originally appeared in Rethink's Wireless Watch
The combination of millimeter wave spectrum and phased array antennas is becoming a staple of so-called 5G demonstrations, and the latest comes from Nokia Networks. The Finnish company says it is hitting speeds of 10Gbps with its prototype system, developed with antenna partner Mitsubishi.
The companies demonstrated the technology at the Brooklyn 5G Summit in New York, claiming 10Gbps peak data rates from a 2×2 MIMO array, supporting applications such as 8K video and next generation 3D effects. Also involved was National Instruments, which provided its LabView development platform to create the prototype.
Other focuses at the event, organized by Nokia and New York University, included massive MIMO arrays and beamsteering to drive performance even higher while reducing latency to the levels required by driverless cars or the Tactile Internet.
The vendor’s VP of research and technology, Lauri Oksanen said: “5G mobile network speeds as high as 10Gbps and with extremely low latency are a driving force for massive mobile broadband and totally new applications in the future programmable world.”
Volker Held, head of innovation marketing at Nokia, said the biggest challenge in harnessing centimeter and millimeter wave frequencies was targeting the beam to the end user precisely. He told Telecoms.com: “It’s not like you have a base station and it’s sending and sending signals, there needs to be a very targeted beam towards the end user. Therefore another hot topic area at the event is around beamforming and beamsteering.” However, he thinks the technology is close to being deployable, but the spectrum is not generally available, at least in the licensed bands.
Most of the big vendors are working on the same combination of technologies as they seek to shape what will become 5G. For instance, ZTE recently carried out a field test of Massive MIMO technology as part of its ‘pre-5G’ developments. It said its 3D MIMO design “exponentially” improved spectral efficiency, coverage and capacity, and was particularly good at improving indoor coverage in tall buildings. The test equipment featured 128 antennas in a 3D array powered by ZTE’s proprietary vector chipset.