The new technology was developed as a joint project between the two at the Deutsche Telekom Service Center in Athens.
“A high-performance transport connection will be key to support high data throughput and enhanced customer experience in next-generation networks, said Alex Jinsung Choi (pictured), SVP of strategy and technology innovation at Deutsche Telekom. “While fibre is an important part of our portfolio, it is not the only option for backhaul. Together with our partners, we have demonstrated fibre-like performance is also possible with wireless backhauling/X-Haul solutions. This offers an important extension of our portfolio of high-capacity, high-performance transport options for the 5G era.”
The news marks the next step towards a 100Gbps future as the development leaps speeds forward from the existing 10Gbps currently being achieved – further proving the commercial viability of future wireless backhaul technology. It comes at a time when The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) published its report in December examining the role of regulation, licensing and technologies in future 5G wireless backhaul/X-Haul deployments.
“Microwave continues to be a key technology for mobile transport by supporting the capacity and latency requirements of 4G and future 5G networks. Our joint innovation project shows that higher capacity microwave backhaul will be an important enabler of high-quality mobile broadband services when 5G becomes a commercial reality,” added Per Narvinger, head of product area networks at Ericsson.
The trial also focused on the latency requirements of 5G to support various low latency or ultra-low latency use cases. It delivered a round-trip latency performance of less than 100ms over a hop distance of 1.4km in the millimetre wave (E-band) spectrum, proving the ability of wireless backhaul to meet network-specific latency goals.
In related news, Ericsson announced that is writing off close to $690 million as it restructures its software business and stops trying to sell its Revenue Manager suite. The $690 million cost includes $349 million in restructuring charges.
