5G technology vendor Movandi is collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies and Wistron NeWeb Corp. (WNC) to expand 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) adoption for indoor and outdoor scenarios.
The deal with Qualcomm will use a combination of small cells based on Qualcomm FSM 5G RAN platforms and Movandi-powered 5G BeamXR smart repeaters for telecoms to quickly deploy mmWave at scale.
Smart repeaters and small cells take signals from nearby cell sites, amplifies the signals from those sites and retransmits them to areas without coverage or to underserved areas. Repeaters are beneficial in dense urban areas with multiple buildings and floors like apartment buildings and dormitories. Installing repeaters between the cell site and the area being served can amplify the signal and increase the 5G footprint.
This is especially important with mmWave technology as the spectrum has trouble penetrating objects such as trees, walls or buildings, which obviously is a problem with indoor coverage. Smart repeaters expand the network to close the coverage gap by providing specific clusters around areas where 5G is in action rather than a general geography.
Movandi said its BeamXR technology combines a fully integrated RF front-end and system-level design for a complete solution with long-range, low power features and mesh configurations.
Private networks
Meanwhile, the partnership with WNC will help to deliver dual-band smart repeaters for indoor networks.
Movandi’s dual-band 28 GHz and 39 GHz BeamXR chipsets will power WNC repeaters for bandwidth-intensive 5G enterprise private networks and enhanced coverage for indoor applications.
WNC’s smart repeater based on BeamXR technology can be installed easily, rapidly and economically with daisy chaining of up to five units using RF signals to enhance coverage flexibility and reduce deployment costs.
The smart repeater uses mmWave signals to be brought indoors from a gNB or a small cell and then spread the small cell signals to enhance indoor coverage. The repeaters also support indoor mesh networks that can be routed based on signal quality, bandwidth, latency and network congestion
