5G moved from FDD to TDD to improve spectrum efficiency. That move resulted in new timing issues to keep networks in sync.

By Xiang Li, Keysight Technologies Follow these three steps to ensure your fixed-wireless access (FWA) designs will be compatible with the Wi-Fi fronthaul and 5G backhaul. Many areas lack the wired infrastructure to bring residential broadband access. Making those connections has become costly and inefficient. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has emerged as a compelling alternative…

First deployed in 2019 for mobile broadband communications, 5G is now ready for 5G-Advanced, which, for the first time, adds features focused on enterprise use cases starting with 3GPP Release 18. First outlined in 3GPP Release 18, 5G-Advanced (5.5G) (Figure 1) significantly improves network efficiency, latency, throughput, and coverage. 5G-Advanced adds evolved multiple input multiple…

By Paul Momtahan, Infinera Learn about the components inside a coherent optical engine, what they do, and how they use modulation to send and receive data. Optical communications over metro, long-haul, and submarine networks once used simple direct-detect technology. That’s no longer the case. Demand for higher-speed optical connections has brought on complex modulations and…

Integrating Wi-Fi 7 with private 5G in CPE devices can help ensure reliable, gigabit-level speeds, robust security, and centralized management across diverse deployment scenarios. Delivering high speeds and low latency, private 5G and Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) networks offer efficient spectrum use and robust security for a wide range of demanding applications. What are the…

By Steve Rumsby, Spirent Communications When is a standard not a standard? This is a technical rather than metaphysical question, though the answer has implications well beyond technology. In the communications business, waiting for a formal technical standard to publish can seem like forever. As a result, industry groups develop their own interim standards to…

5G base stations rely on phased arrays to steer signals and increase data rates. Beam steering circuits, however, consume power. Using waveguides could reduce energy consumption in base stations. Waveguides are physical structures that direct electromagnetic waves from one point to another, confining energy within specific boundaries to control propagation, direction, and mode. While waveguide…

5G is much more than cell phones. IoT devices, medical devices, and industrial devices can connect to networks using technologies such as TDD, network slicing, and beamforming. 5G New Radio (NR) made its long-awaited commercial debut in late 2018. Offering significantly faster speeds and greater capacity compared to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5G NR…

By Leigh Chinitz, Spirent Communications Until recently, service providers were unable to predict in-home performance of Wi-Fi devices because they lacked standardized test cases. Now, industry groups have advanced three new standards, each geared toward different Wi-Fi use cases. The Wi-Fi industry has long had standardized conformance testing to confirm that a device meets standards…

Error vector magnitude (EVM) is the most important figure of merit for signal quality in 5G NR. A new method improves measurement accuracy by reducing noise.