Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom recently achieved a landmark data transmission rate by consistently topping 100 Gbps in a trial microwave link over 1.5km.
Conducted at the Deutsche Telekom Service Center in Athens, the joint innovation project represents a major technical breakthrough, achieving more than 10 times greater throughput speeds than current commercial solutions on similar 70/80 GHz millimeter wave spectrum.
Apart from confirming the potential of microwave technology over millimeter-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, said Ericsson.
Key technological advances included an 8x8 line-of-sight MIMO with cross polarization interference cancellation setup 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.
Alex Jinsung Choi, SVP Strategy & Tachnology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom
This milestone confirms the feasibility of microwave over millimeter 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.
Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson
By carrying such high capacities, microwave further establishes itself as a key transport technology, capable of delivering the performance requirements of 5G.
