Samsung, Nokia Power 5G mmWave Potential

by Dan Meyer, Executive Editor
November 8, 2022

Samsung and Nokia are part of an Australian 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) network that could show broader deployment promise in support of higher-speed fixed-wireless access (FWA) networks. The effort is around bridging that countrya€™s digital divide.

Samsung was part of an infrastructure test conducted with Australiaa€™s NBN Co., which is a quasi-government entity tasked with expanding broadband across that country using its nbn wholesale network. The vendor said it was able to beam a 5G signal 6.2 miles from an FWA location using spectrum in the 28 GHz band that produced an average downlink speed of 1.75 Gb/s and uplink speed of 61.5 Mb/s.

The test aggregated eight 100 megahertz carriers, with total support of 800 megahertz of spectrum. This taps into the significant amount of available mmWave spectrum in most parts of the world.

Samsung used its Compact Macro integrated radio to beam the high-powered signal. This unit includes the baseband, radio, and antenna into a single form factor.

This signal was beamed to a a€œthird-party 5G mmWave customer premise equipment (CPE).a€

Nokia had previously announced it was supplying 5G FWA mmWave CPE equipment for nbna€™s efforts that also operates in the 28 GHz band with similar performance characteristics stated by Samsung for its test, including a range of up to 6.2 miles from the transmission tower. However, Samsung said that Nokiaa€™s equipment was not part of its test.

Nokia noted that its CPE includes an antenna installed on the roof of a premises that is linked using a 2.5 Gb/s power over Ethernet (PoE) connection to an indoor unit that powers the on-premises internet connectivity.

The Australian project is working with around $485 million in funding provided by the government and NBN Co. Ita€™s focused on expanding the reach of the countrya€™s existing fixed wireless footprint by 50% and offering tiered services at different price points.

The nbn FWA network covers nearly 650,000 premises in the country. The firm wants to add at least 120,000 locations that are currently served by a satellite-based service.

5G mmWave Expansion
The test is significant as it shows potential use cases for difficult to deploy mmWave spectrum. Those bands, which are typically considered to be at least 15 GHz, typically have poor propagation characteristics. This means that the signals dona€™t travel very far from a transmitter and are easily blocked by materials.

Many operators around the world hold and use hundreds of megahertz of spectrum in these bands, but deployments are typically limited to short-range or indoor locations.

Verizon, for instance, has been plagued by coverage issues in deploying its vast mmWave spectrum resources.

The NBN work is able to overcome some of those challenges by being able to boost the signal strength in low population density rural locations that have minimal interference characteristics. The service is also using FWA CPEs that have a constant power source and remove the receiver from the on-premises device to separate heat and power issues.

Vendors are beginning to look more closely in tying mmWave spectrum bands to mid-band spectrum to provide a speed boost to 5G services.

a€œAt Qualcomm we believe that 5G mmWave is not an either or, ita€™s not really a choice, ita€™s complementary to midband when you want to offer the best possible quality of experience wherever your subscriber is,a€ Philippe Poggianti, VP of business development at Qualcomm, noted earlier this year.

UPDATED: This story was updated by removing the statement that Nokia was a€œlikelya€ the CPE provider for the nbn test and to further clarify that Nokia was not part of the Samsung test.