Nokia announced new capabilities for its Flexi Zone portfolio of small cell radios aimed at boosting performance and simplifying deployment in ultra-dense networks. These include:
- 25 new frequency band and radio access technologies (RAT) variants of the Flexi Zone Multiband BTS
- eight frequency variants of the Mini-Macro BTS portfolio
- 3G support in two frequency bands for the compact Flexi Zone Micro (the Flexi Zone micro and indoor pico BTS in the US 3.5GHz CBRS band, made commercially available in June, are the industry’s first mobile network solutions to support this new band)
- Uplink carrier aggregation with two carriers will double peak upload data speeds to 102Mbps
- Downlink 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) support will boost subscribers’ download peak performance by more than 30%.
- Nokia is doubling its LTE-U bandwidth support to 40 MHz on the Flexi Zone Multiband BTS range, to further enhance LTE-U small cell performance by up to 33 percent.
Mark Atkinson, head of the Small Cell Business Line at Nokia, said: “We continue to boost the performance of our Flexi Zone portfolio to smooth operators’ deployment of much-needed capacity into their networks. This will allow them to prepare for the ever-growing demands of people and IoT, particularly in dense megacities. The future introduction of Nokia MulteFire technology will mean many more enterprises will be able to deploy their own discreet networks to enjoy the benefits that LTE will offer. The new Self Organizing Network (SON) features will allow companies, who may not have technical expertise in this field, to deploy small cells with ease.”
Nokia 4.5G Pro Promises Gigabit Downlink Speed
Nokia has defined a “4.5G Pro” step as an intermediary point on the path to 5G.
Nokia 4.5G Pro, will be powered by the Nokia AirScale radio portfolio, promises major increases in LTE capacity, coverage and speed, including ten times the speeds of initial 4G networks.
Nokia said this new LTE performance tier will make it possible for operators to offer gigabit peak data rates.
Nokia 4.5G Pro will leverage extended carrier aggregation techniques across up to five frequency bands. Operators will be able to leverage their diverse paired (FDD) and unpaired (TDD) licensed spectrum as well as unlicensed spectrum, in line with local national regulations, supported by the upcoming generation of user devices.
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. 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.
Nokia is also planning for “4.9G”, which will 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.
“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,” stated Samih Elhage, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia.
