The networking and telecommunications company Ericsson and Germany’s largest network provider Deutsche Telekom, have announced that together they are the first to successfully demonstrate a wireless transmission on the mmWave spectrum, that can transfer data four times faster than currently existing services. The achievement of the data transmission rate of 40 Gbps with a latency of under 100 microseconds is a considerable advancement towards the fulfilment of stringent latency requirements of 5G, and the anticipated 100 Gbps backhaul networking.
Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, said: “Microwave continues to be a key technology for mobile transport by supporting the capacity and latency requirements of 4G and future 5G networks. Our joint innovation project shows that higher capacity microwave backhaul will be an important enabler of high-quality mobile broadband services when 5G becomes a commercial reality.”
A backhaul is an intermediate link between the core network and the small subnetworks at the network’s edge, and as a flexible wireless infrastructure, this component is essential for a reliable and efficient 5G service performance. The development of such wireless networking systems, as per the current Ericsson project, eliminates the need for expensive fiber optic cables and offer real possibilities for reduced cost and faster deployment.
According to Alex Jinsung Choi, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Technology Innovation for Deutsche Telekom, “a high-performance transport connection will be key to support high data throughput and enhanced customer experience in next-generation networks.”
“While fiber is an important part of our portfolio, it is not the only option for backhaul. Together with our partners, we have demonstrated fiber-like performance is also possible with wireless backhauling/X-Haul solutions. This offers an important extension of our portfolio of high-capacity, high-performance transport options for the 5G era,” continued Jinsung Choi.
Deutsche Telekom’s Service Centre in Athens served as the location for the live trial of a millimeter wave (E-band) transmission, completed over a distance of 1.4 kilometers. Ericsson’s Mini-Link 6352 microwave solution and Router 6000 were used as the technical components of the project.
