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Nokia Bell Labs and Keysight Technologies have partnered in order to verify the performance of 5G-Advanced and 6G transceiver (TRX) modules. Nokia is looking to accelerate research and development critical to supporting 5G-Advanced and 6G use cases. These are use cases which leverage millimeter wave (mmWave) and sub-terahertz (THz) frequencies to wirelessly transmit large amounts of data across short distances.

Nokia will be running tests using a sub-Terahertz (THz) test bed from Keysight. The 6G test bed will be used to test the performance of TRX modules, power amplifiers and antennas. Tests will be performed under both linear and nonlinear conditions. The network infrastructure components were designed by Nokia. The company accomplished this by leveraging complex modulation technology and D-Band (110 GHz to 170 GHz) and E-Band (60 GHz to 90 GHz) spectrum.

Keysight and Nokia recently demonstrated the 6G test bed in combination with Nokia’s RFIC and radio-on-glass technology. The demonstration was showcased at the 2022 Brooklyn 6G Summit last month. The companies outlined the use of the 6G test bed for evaluating the performance of an individual component or a cascaded series of components in an end-to-end system.

“Working with Keysight enables us to make significant progress in developing next generation wireless technology. Cross-industry collaborations are important in co-innovating technology that merges physical, digital and human domains to create immersive experiences that support meaningful interactions,” said Nokia Bell Labs Core Research President Peter Vetter in a statement.

Nokia seems eager that they get 6G right since they were a bit behind with 5G. In fact, in a blog post earlier this year, Nokia highlighted that it’s working closely with industry organizations, government agencies and academia to make 6G technologies a reality. Nokia said it was selected to lead major 6G initiatives in the U.S., and it’s leading the Hexa-X-II project in Europe that’s designed to lay the groundwork for 6G standardization.

As 5G coverage and usage continues to grow, AT&T is focusing on partnering with some companies like Rakuten Symphony, Nokia, and IBM to help address the ever changing needs of service providers and the way in which different industries operate.

Rakuten Symphony, a comms platform provider, has something called Rakuten Symworld. This platform is designed to offer one-touch access to a suite of next-gen network software apps, which can update and automate any mobile network. Industrialized automation and data-driven solutions are available for planning, designing, deploying, operating, securing and maintaining new and existing networks – all at the speed and scale of the cloud.

Together, they will utilize experience and expertise from technologies currently being used by AT&T in the US and Rakuten Mobile in Japan. Efforts will be focussed on accelerating network planning and deployment in greenfield and brownfield environments. They eventually plan to develop new capabilities and offer additional solutions to mobile network operators across the globe to simplify, digitize and automate their mobile network deployments.

AT&T’s deal with Rakuten comes just days after it was announced they had entered into a partnership with Microsoft. A world with smarter, simpler private 5G networks with more flexibility for businesses is their focus.

In another major partnership, AT&T extends its relationship with IBM to help enterprise users navigate the transitioning of their industry along with new technologies. The partnership has lasted more than 20 years at this point and they’ve done quite a bit together in that time. At this time however, the two companies plan on showing the digital transformation potential of 5G wireless networking and edge computing.

Edge computing has proven to be capable of enabling faster, improved data analysis, along with creating an opportunity for deeper insights, faster response times and enhanced customer experience.

“Together, AT&T and IBM have created simulated environments for enterprise clients to physically experience the power of AT&T’s connectivity with hybrid cloud and AI technology from IBM. Businesses across all industries—including the public sector, manufacturing, and financial services — can tap into this collaboration to quickly and securely innovate and tackle challenges gripping several industries today – from supply chain disruptions to cyber threats and ransomware to demand for frictionless services in the world of 5G,” said the AT&T announcement.

AT&T noticed there was demand from new users requiring greater uplink performance from 5G networks, which led them to a partnership with Nokia’s Bell Labs. They have been working to develop distributed massive multiple input, multiple output (DmMIMO) technology. This can significantly increase uplink capacity and speeds in 5G networks without requiring an overly complex solution.

Per the announcement from Nokia, “DmMIMO allows devices to leverage signal propagation to multiple cells or antenna panels in a network when establishing a link, thereby turning noise into a useful signal and increasing the uplink throughput. The data transmission is pieced together from multiple antenna panels and cell sites through distributed baseband processing. The processing load between the cell site radio units and the central processing unit is split in a novel way, reducing the fronthaul capacity to cell sites and hence lowering the cost.”

Testing the proof-of-concept technology is being done by Nokia in AT&T’s labs. The simulations were shown to have “demonstrated increases in 5G uplink capacity between 60% and 90% compared to similarly configured systems with a single panel.” Together, the partners have also determined that while other techniques come at the expense of downlink capacity, DmMIMO produces sizable increases in uplink capacity without sacrificing performance.

Tag: Nokia

How is Nokia Testing 5G-Advanced and 6G?