Test and Measurement: Broadband Forum launches project focused on 5G FWA for MDUs

Broadband Forum has launched a new technical project focused on enabling 5G Fixed Wireless Access to more efficiently serve multi-dwelling units (MDUs) via the re-use of existing property infrastructure cabling.

Broadband Forum described several issues with using 5G FWA—particularly at mmWave frequencies, which provide the greatest speed and capacity—to serve apartments. Millimeter wave is unlikely to penetrate a building sufficiently to provide gigabit-level service to individual apartments, but installing an individual FWA CPE for each apartment can mean an impractical number of pieces of equipment, causing issues with the needed amount of roof space, the necessary RF separation and potential for interference issues—not to mention that need to lay Ethernet cable to each apartment, Broadband Forum explained. Instead, it says that individual apartments could be reached “using the existing property infrastructure cabling, such as twisted pair or coaxial cabling, from the attic or basement of the building,” which is the focus of the new project.

“Broadband Forum is aiming to address and solve these challenges by leveraging the existing in-building infrastructure, such as telephone wiring or coaxial cabling, to extend 5G FWA to each apartment within a hotel block or apartment complex,” said Christele Bouchat, Nokia and Wireless/Wireline Convergence Work Area Co-Director at Broadband Forum. “We have launched this project to bring tangible benefits to operators and make the rapid and efficient delivery of multi-gigabit connectivity for residents and building owners a very real possibility.

Helge Tiainen of InCoax Networks, which is a Broadband Forum member, said that “By using the cabling already available in the building, it will save operators’ time and money, and give consumers a better broadband experience. This project will have a huge impact on how telco operators can deploy 5G FWA connections in metropolitan areas.

“Since the deployment of FWA infrastructure has already been initiated, it is fundamental that we solve the MDU reachability challenge faced by the broadband industry today,” he added.

In other test news:

–NI’s stockholders have approved the company’s $8.2 billion acquisition by Emerson. NI stockholders will receive $60 per share of common stock. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of Emerson’s fiscal 2024, or by March 2024.

-Indian digitalization specialist Persistent Systems has opened up a new private 5G lab in Pune, India. The lab is focused on both demonstrating 5G’s capabilities and as a showcase for applications providers, the company said, but also testing and development of products and services that take advantage of 5G. Persistent said that the lab will support end-to-end use case testing including scenarios involving multi-cloud orchestration, Open RAN and MEC.

–Northeastern University has launched a new O-RAN Alliance-approved Open Testing and Integration Center (OTIC). Full story here.

–Rohde & Schwarz said that, alongside MediaTek, it has verified the first Non-Terrestrial-Network NB-IoT protocol conformance test cases, which “sets the course for NTN device conformity approval” and is a step closer to such devices entering the market.

MediaTek’s NTN IoT-capable MT6825 chipset and the R&S CMW500 radio communications tester was used in the test case verification, which involved the chipset being able to juggle various aspects including changes in multiple protocol control layers, efficient transmission of GNSS data, delivery of accurate system responses under varying configurations and accurate interpretation of timing information.

-In other MediaTek news, the company said this week that it worked with Samsung on successful testing of 5G Standalone Uplink (UL) 2CC Carrier Aggregation (CA) with C-Band UL MIMO at the former’s lab in Suwon, Korea. The pair claim the approach, which used three transmit (3Tx) antennas to improve upload experiences, allowed them to hit top uplink speeds of 363 Mbps. More details in this story.

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