Japan-based Murata Manufacturing Co. is developing an RF module solution for Terragraph, a gigabit wireless technology envisioned by Facebook for urban and suburban environments.
Terragraph is enabled in part by placing millimeter-wave RF modules at 200 to 250 meter intervals between base stations.
Murata said its millimeter-wave RF modules use an independently developed Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic that realizes stable communications quality in the millimeter-wave band and features both high heat and moisture resistance. This help ensures a high-quality network environment for Terragraph.
Norio Nakajima, Senior Executive Vice President, Module Business Unit, and Representative Director stated: “As the popularity of 5G approaches, the information society will become more familiar than ever and will be accessible to everyone. Murata Manufacturing has advantages in communications and hardware, and we are very pleased to be able to support Facebook’s Terragraph project to expand access to high-quality connectivity.”
Facebook’s Terragraph Accelerates WiGig for City Access
Facebook took the wraps off of two terrestrial connectivity technologies for fast wireless access.
Terragraph is a 60 GHz, multi-node wireless system for dense urban areas and that uses radios based on the WiGig standard. Facebook said Terragraph will deliver gigabits of data capacity. IPv6-only Terragraph nodes will be placed at 200m intervals. Terragraph will incorporate commercial off-the-shelf components and aim for high-volume, low-cost production. Facebook noted that up to 7 GHz of bandwidth is available in the unlicensed 60 GHz band in many countries. U.S. regulators are considering expanding this to a total of 14 GHz.
Facebook Terragraph will also leverage an SDN-like cloud compute controller and a new modular routing protocol that Facebook optimized for fast route convergence and failure detection. The architecture also tweaks the MAC layer to solve shortcomings of TCP/IP over a wireless link. The company says the TDMA-TDD MAC layers delivers up to 6x improvement in network efficiency while being more predictable than the existing Wi-Fi/WiGig standard.
Terragraph is already in operation at the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California, where it delivers 1.05 Gbps bidirectional (2.1 Gbps total throughput per distribution node) in P2P mode, up to 250 meters away. A wider trial is planned for San Jose, California.
