Samsung Electronics America and Verizon recently began lab trials on new 5G mmWave in-building solutions which, when commercially launched, will provide 5G mmWave coverage inside facilities such as hospitals, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, schools, ports, retail stores and more.
The launch of these indoor cell sites will not only extend the footprint of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, but will also bring the promise of private networks with Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) capabilities one step closer.
In-building solutions have been a staple of wireless networks since their inception, providing an effective and efficient means of delivering dedicated coverage and capacity indoors for 4G LTE for many years. These similar 5G indoor solutions being tested are more compact, lower power and compatible with Verizon’s virtualization strategy.
After an industry-wide RFP, Corning’s and Samsung’s indoor cell site solutions were chosen for the Verizon network. Corning’s solution successfully completed testing in the Verizon test lab in Westlake, TX and has begun field testing in a live network environment.
Corning’s mmWave solution, part of Corning’s portfolio of strategic cellular solutions for the enterprise, brings 5G indoors with a sleek, easy-to-install design, delivering future-ready 5G performance by utilizing Corning’s state-of-the-art composite fiber (with fiber for data transmission and copper for powering, in one cable.)
Verizon expects to begin deployment of a commercial in-building product by the end of 2020.
Adam Koeppe, SVP of Technology Planning and Development at Verizon
An indoor cell site brings the benefits of mmWave 5G – high throughput, great capacity, high reliability and the ability for a large number of users to simultaneously use robust data applications – indoors where it may be more difficult for signals from our outside 5G network to penetrate.
