Huawei, DoCoMo make a little mmWave go a long way in 5G trial

huawei docomo 5G mmwave

Huawei and NTT DoCoMo have completed yet another joint 5G field trial – this one for transmitting data on the 39 GHz mmWave band over long distances, potentially paving the way for using mmWave spectrum for macro-cellular 5G coverage.

In the trial, conducted in November 2017 in Yokohama, Huawei and DoCoMo successfully demonstrated that 39-GHz mmWave can be used for long distance transmissions in both stationary and mobile scenarios, even in urban complex deployment environments. The companies recorded over 3 Gbps downlink throughput on the stationary UE at a distance of 1.5 km, and over 2 Gbps at a distance of 1.8 km.

The trial result opens up new door for applications and deployments of 5G mmWave using existing macro cell sites, said Takehiro Nakamura, VP and managing director of NTT DoCoMo’s 5G Laboratory.

“Long-distance transmission over 39GHz mmWave will enable 5G network deployments in a large scale,” he said.

Dr. Wen Tong, Huawei Fellow and CTO of Huawei Wireless Networks, said 5G mmWave technology “will help our customer to reuse the existing network infrastructure, especially for sites resource, to protect their investment. This test is first time to successfully verify the long distance transmission [capabilities] of 5G mmWave.”

Achieving wide area coverage and mobility performance on 5G mmWave is still a technological challenge. High propagation loss of mmWave signals limit its coverage, while the narrow directional beam required to focus the transmission power makes it difficult for mmWave to track the mobile device.

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