Nokia has refreshed its portfolio of 5G-ready products by launching new radio solutions, small cells and SDN.
It is the vendor’s latest release as it aims to help operators enhance network performance, meet demand for the Internet of Things and lay out a path to 5G.
Nokia said it was adding new dual and single band FDD-LTE and TD-LTE radios to its AirScale Remote Radio Head portfolio. The radios can support carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO and 8×4 beamforming. The Finland-based company claimed the products also extend support for frequency bands and simplify network rollouts.
In small cells, Nokia has launched Ultra-Dense self-organising network (SON) features to its Flexi Zone range of devices. It said this would help simplify small cell deployments and ensure the continuous optimisation of network as the number of cells increases.
The SON features have also been extended to its femtocell portfolio of products, which the vendor said would smooth integration and increase performance as traffic gets offloaded from macro.
Nokia has also added new features to boost coverage and capacity within its range of Flexi Zone Citizen Band Radio Service (CBRS) small cells. Other features include the ability to deploy neutral host capabilities, which would allow operators to lease capacity to other telcos. CBRS is shared spectrum in the 3.5GHz band in the United States.
In microwave backhaul, Nokia has added carrier SDN support to its Wavence solution. The vendor said operators will have access to better intelligence and automation by using microwaves to backhaul small cells to fiber access points.
The announcements follow rival Ericsson revealing its own tweaks to its 5G portfolio yesterday (8 September).
Stéphane Téral, IHS Markit Executive Director of Research and Analysis, Mobile Infrastructure & Carrier Economics, said: “Nokia continues to deliver a sustainable path to 5G that allows operators to implement new capabilities in their network where and when they need them, ensuring the most efficient use of resources.
A challenge for operators is to meet the ever-growing demands in busy cities and Nokia is providing a comprehensive approach to solving this.”