Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson conduct microwave link trial

A data transmission rate that consistently tops 100 Gbps has been achieved by Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom.

Conducted at the Deutsche Telekom Service Centre in Athens, the project was conducted in a trial microwave link over 1.5 km.

It achieved more than 10 times greater throughput speeds than current commercial solutions on similar 70/80 GHz millimetre wave spectrum.

“Advanced backhaul solutions will be needed to support high data throughput and enhanced customer experience in the 5G era. This milestone confirms the feasibility of microwave over millimetre wave spectrum as an important extension of our portfolio of high-capacity, high-performance transport options for the 5G era. In addition, it represents a game-changing solution for future fronthauling capabilities,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, SVP Strategy & Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom.

”This trial signifies the successful establishment of true fibre capacities over the air using microwave. This means that microwave will be even more relevant for communications service providers in creating redundant networks as a back-up for fibre, or as a way of closing a fibre ring when fibre is not a viable solution. By carrying such high capacities, microwave further establishes itself as a key transport technology, capable of delivering the performance requirements of 5G,” said Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson.

Apart from confirming the potential of microwave technology over millimetre-wave spectrum (70/80 GHz and above) as a 5G-and-beyond fronthaul and backhaul solution, the trial showed the importance of applying spectral efficient techniques, such as MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) on wireless backhaul technologies to address upcoming 5G radio access demands.

Key technological advances included an 8 x 8 line-of-sight MIMO with cross polarisation interference cancellation set-up using commercial MINI-LINK 6352 radios and a 2.5 GHz channel bandwidth in the E-band (70/80 GHz) able to transmit eight independent data streams over the radio path. This corresponds to a breakthrough spectrum efficiency of 55.2 bps/Hz at peak.

During the mid-April trial, transmission rates measures were consistently above 100 Gbps, with telecom grade availability (higher than 99.995%), with peak rates reaching 140 Gbps.

In late 2018, Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom broke the 40 Gbps barrier fully using commercial equipment including Ericsson’s MINI-LINK 6352 solution, which currently provides 10 Gbps capacity over a 2000 MHz channel. To raise throughput by more than 10 times, this trial used a 2500 MHz channel and pre-commercial baseband and MIMO processing equipment in addition to MINI-LINK 6352 radios.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Leigh Prather

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