Testing and measurement company Viavi announced that it has validated the over-the-air (OTA) performance of the Nokia Massive MIMO radio operating in the upper 6 GHz frequency range.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocated this part of the spectrum for future 6G networks during the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in 2023. However, the Wi-Fi industry has been fighting to secure the entire band, alleging that the latest WiFi technologies demand the 6 GHz range to unlock their full capabilities.
Nonetheless, the mobile industry is already exploring all possibilities. The performance validation is proof of this.
“As 5G applications push the currently allocated spectrum to its limits, a key focus for future generations of wireless technology is to enable use of new frequency bands with the requisite capacity, coverage, performance and efficiency,” Viavi pointed out in a press release.
According to the company, Nokia and VIAVI established a proof of concept at Nokia’s Otava lab in Oulu, Finland. They replicated real-world scenarios using a Nokia system that included a 128TRX Massive MIMO radio based on the Nokia AirScale Habrok platform, configured at the upper part of n104 band (6425–7125 MHz). Viavi used its NITRO Wireless test portfolio.
The following test cases validated the performance:
- Spectrum analysis and peak throughput validation of one Component Carrier (1CC), and two Component Carriers (2CC) with downlink and uplink Carrier Aggregation (CA)
- Performance and capacity validation with hundreds of emulated User Equipment (UEs) and real-world data traffic applications.
“This proof of concept built on previous lab and field trials conducted by Nokia, focusing on OTA performance of the Nokia Massive MIMO radio in the upper 6 GHz band under real-world conditions, and further validated its capability to support development and deployment of 5G-Advanced and 6G networks,” Viavi concluded.
