The O-RAN Alliance has developed specifications for communications interfaces between components of an Open RAN. This FAQ explains the functions of each.
LNAs cover low and mid 5G frequency bands
Fairview Microwave introduces its groundbreaking series of 5G amplifiers. Tailored to cater to the demands of modern projects, these amplifiers encapsulate the best of innovative technology, ensuring top-tier performance across the 5G spectrum without straining budgets. The all-new amplifiers come in compact coaxial packages, addressing a vast frequency spectrum ranging from 10 MHz up to…
Base station antennas produce six signal beams
MatSing announced the general availability of its new 6-beam MBA product set to address the evolving connectivity needs of carriers. Designed for carriers looking for a high-performing antenna solution, the new 6-beam panel lens antenna portfolio delivers significant signal gain improvement, higher isolation between beams, and 4×4 MIMO support to provide the optimal coverage and capacity…
6G Symposium: The discussions continue
The 6G Symposium took place on October 18 and 19, 2023, in Washington, DC. This year, the talk was more about use cases, with less talk about sustainability than in the past. One week before the symposium, I heard two contrasting views on 5G given at a virtual conference. In the morning, Chris Pearson of…
IoT antennas connect wireless devices to 4G and 5G networks
Quectel has unveiled six new antennas designed to provide robust connectivity performance for IoT devices. The new antennas cover a wide range of use cases from 5G to non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) bringing new capabilities to customers. The Quectel YC0001CA is a 4G surface-mount design (SMD) antenna optimized for LTE, LTE-M, and Narrow Band-IoT (NB-IoT) networks.…
Open RAN apps cut network energy consumption
ONF announced that it has achieved its first milestone in the SMaRT-5G project with the successful demonstration of an intelligent cell on/off RAN energy savings application (rApp) that works hand-in-hand with a traffic steering application (xApp), ensuring quality of service while optimizing RAN energy consumption. These Integrated xApp and rApp applications, implemented entirely in open…
Signal generator tests 5G FR1, LTE, Wi-Fi components and systems
Designed for bench and production use, the N5186A generates wireless signals to 3 GHz, 6 GHz or 8.5 GHz depending on model. Designing commercial or military wireless receivers, amplifiers, and systems means you’ll need to generate test signals. Keysight’s N5186A MXG vector-signal generator (datasheet) is available in one-channel or four-channel models with Type-N connectors. Each…
When battery life rules, turn off 5G
The data is clear. My phone’s battery charge life looks better with 5G turned off.
The first non-cellular 5G standard: DECT NR+
Officially known as DECT-2020 NR, the protocol brings 5G to smart devices over non-cellular networks. Learn more from a video interview with Jussi Numminen of Wirepas and vice-chair of the ETSI DECT technical committee. For several years, we’ve been hearing about the three points of 5G: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), and…
Why O-RAN sync monitoring needs AI/ML
As Open RAN deployments gather pace and accurate timing, synchronization has emerged as a critical step toward consistent performance. It is a complex task, with devices requiring time synchronization to UTC reference via IEEE PTP/SyncE-based boundary clocks, slave clocks, PRTC clocks with GNSS receivers, as well as accurate, real-time monitoring in support of customer SLAs.…