Nokia, in partnership with China Mobile Research Institute has launched what it claims is the industry's first hybrid indoor radio solution with location services to meet 5G connectivity demands inside busy large buildings such as business campuses and shopping malls.
The jointly developed 5G hybrid distributed indoor system is aimed at lowering operators' deployment costs. Research conducted by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) shows that consumption of 70% of 5G business applications will take place indoors, with high-value customers likely to spend 80% of their working hours in an indoor environment. As a result, indoor coverage has become a key area for operators to develop new 5G services.
China Mobile has long utilized distributed access systems (DAS) for 4G indoor coverage and wanted a solution that would meet the demands of 5G while reducing costs as it introduces innovative new services. Nokia and China Mobile jointly developed the industry-first 5G low-cost hybrid distributed indoor system to meet these challenges. This active smart indoor coverage system leverages the Nokia 5G Pico RRH system together with passive DAS antennas and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. With fewer active elements to deploy compared to Pico systems, the solution reduces deployment costs to the levels associated with traditional passive-only DAS systems, while delivering greater capacity than DAS, said Nokia.
Zhang Xinwang, Senior Researcher, China Mobile Research Institute
Our collaborations with Nokia Shanghai Bell, along with the innovations jointly achieved, will help us maintain the leading position in 5G coverage and capacity while effectively lowering implementation costs.
Chang Jiang, CTO, Customer Operations, Nokia Shanghai Bell
As a leader in 5G, Nokia will continue to build on its technology momentum to help China Mobile evolve its network to meet its business and consumer customers' increasing demands in the 5G world.
