Nokia bolsters 4.9G portfolio, launches enterprise network aggregation tool

Nokia

Nokia has unveiled new technologies that will allow operators to handle increasing network demands as well as new tools to create private mobile networks for businesses.

New additions to the vendor’s 4.9G portfolio offer operators greater capacity and speeds on existing LTE networks.

The 4.9G Airscale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna uses beamforming to increase cell download capacity by up to five times and upload by up to eight times, Nokia said.

It also added the AirScale Micro Remote Radio Head, which allows operators to use unlicensed spectrum using Licensed Assisted Access. According to Nokia, this can achieve speeds of 1GBps using just 20MHz of operators’ own licensed spectrum.

The vendor also added enhancements to the AirScale base station, which allows operators to densify networks while apparently reducing operational costs up to 40 percent.

The full 4.9G portfolio will be introduced by the end of 2017, Nokia said.

In addition, Nokia Zero Emission 3.0 will reduce operators’ energy consumption by up to 50 percent. Frank Weyerich, Head of Mobile Networks Products at Nokia, said: “Nokia introduced 4.5G Pro and 4.9G last year to allow operators to implement network capacity increases where and when it made sense for them.

“Now we are delivering features that will maximise their resources, speed deployment times and cut power and costs especially in the most densely populated locations. We are making 4.5G Pro a commercial reality now and working with customers to innovate with solutions to their network densification and evolution challenges in 4.9G and beyond.”

Nokia also unveiled technologies that use licensed, unlicensed and shared spectrum to create private mobile networks for the enterprise market.

Multi-operator and multi-access network interworking will be enabled through Nokia’s Multi-access Edge Computing technology, providing an overlay approach that aggregates various networks to provide an overarching private network for an enterprise.

This includes combining an enterprise’s own Wi-Fi or private wireless network with an operator network to boost performance.

The technology will be trialled in partnership with Boingo, the American mobile internet provider.