Nokia announced that the company will introduce 4.5G Pro that it claims can deliver ten times the speeds of initial 4G networks. Powered by the Nokia AirScale radio portfolio, Nokia said that the new platform is the next step in a technology path that will optimize the journey to 5G.
With urban populations growing steadily, ultra-connected megacities are becoming a challenge for operators of mobile and fixed broadband networks. The new Nokia 4.5G technology leverages techniques such as aggregation of up to four carriers, advanced radio modulations techniques and network based IoT connectivity to boost LTE capabilities and help operators address these challenges.
Nokia has also outlined its plans for 4.9G, which will allow users to maintain a continuous 5G service experience using an evolved LTE to complement 5G radio coverage. While 4.5G Pro focuses on the 2017 user device ecosystem and 5G-readiness of the network, deployment in the future of Nokia 4.9G will bring significant capacity and data rate enhancements and network latency reductions to let users maintain a continuous 5G service experience complementing 5G radio coverage, said Nokia.
According to Nokia, the 4.9G portfolio will comprise features to further increase capacity and speeds to several gigabits per second, including allowing additional numbers of carriers to be aggregated, opening the door to additional licensed and unlicensed spectrum, and advancing the radio systems to allow highly directional antennas to be used and to allow signals sent via multiple transmit / receive paths to be added together. Furthermore, it will utilize cloud-based networks with intelligence added to the edge in order to reduce latencies to less than 10msec.
Ken Rehbehn, Principal Analyst at 451 Research
Exceptional advancements in LTE over the last six years now make it possible for end users to enjoy peak rates of 1 Gbps. A major waypoint on the journey to 5G, it marks the start of a new mobile broadband era between early 4G systems and future 5G technology.
Samih Elhage, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia
While the ever-connected world of people and IoT drives huge data demands, the speeds enabled by 5G will be a colossal step in operators' network evolution. However, with our 4.5G, 4.5G Pro and 4.9G technologies, we will provide a smooth evolution path that will allow them to increase capacity and improve the user experience while creating new revenue opportunities.
