Mobile operators could expedite their 5G roll out expedited if they put their backhaul into a new improved form of microwave wireless technology that shifts 10Gbps. French researcher CEA and backhaul specialist Spectronite have fused a spectrally efficient waveform into Spectronite’s X-Series microwave modem to create a superfast wireless comms box to support 5G backhaul.
“Our software-defined microwave products allow mobile operators to roll-out 5G networks faster and at lower cost compared to fibre connectivity,” said Jean-Philippe Fournier, Spectronite CEO.
The intellectual property belongs to CEA-Leti a technology research institute within CEA that pioneers micro- and nanotechnologies, including radio frequency technology. Spectronite’s rationale is to software define wireless backhaul technology and it has hit on the idea to create the longest and highest-capacity microwave links ever designed. X-Series, its latest product, achieves capacity up to 10Gbps and can reach multi-gigabit transfers over distances up to 50 kilometres. “Our application can keep up with the continuous spiking of global mobile data usage,” said Sébastien Dauvé, CEA-Leti’s CEO.
Spectronite is calling on mobile operators to change the way they interconnect 5G base stations. In a typical 5G rollout, operators need to find an increasing number of base stations, each supporting a data rate ten times that of the existing 4G base stations, says Spectronite. Demand for capacity is doubling every 18 months and the backhaul options are labour intensive fibre or a relatively simple wireless installation.
E-band radios in the 80GHz frequency band can provide the required capacity for 5G backhaul over short distances in wireless applications, typically up to 5 km, says Spectronite. Traditionally there were snags with longer distances, since the legacy radio architectures in the frequency range from 6GHz to 42GHz were not designed for scaling. Spectronite claims its software radio architecture overcomes this limitation by creating intra-band, non-contiguous carrier aggregation up to 10Gb/s in these bands.
CEA-Leti’s invention has created a significantly higher spectral efficiency than traditional radios can offer, while respecting the ETSI standards for spectrum emission masks. The collaboration’s initial results show a data-rate increase of 20 percent compared to the conventional backhaul radio wave-form.
“With this unprecedented level of spectral efficiency, we provide huge savings to our [mobile operator] customers on the cost of their spectrum rental licenses,” said Spectronite’s Fournier.