Benetel’s RAN650 operates in the n77u band, which covers CBRS and other private network frequencies. It’s compliant with O-RAN fronthaul specifications.

Private networks using 4G and 5G technologies are gaining traction because of their combination of good range, sufficient bandwidth, precise timing, and low latency. Many of these private networks operate in factories, hospitals, shipping ports, and other locations that can benefit from these attributes. The RAN650 Outdoor O-RU from Benetel fits those and other applications.

The RAN650 uses four transmit/receive antennas (4T4R) producing up to 5 W (37 dBm) of transmitter power for each antenna. It operates in the 5G mid-band n77u, which covers frequencies from 3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz. Thus, it covers the unlicensed CBRS band in the U.S. and the German unlicensed cellular band (3.7 GHz to 3.8 GHz), among others used for private networks. It supports 100 MHz channels with 256 QAM download and 64 QAM upload modulation.

From a network perspective, the radio unit is based on the 7.2 functional split, which is a division of the lower and higher PHY functions between radio unit (O-RU) and radio-access network (RAN) distributed unit (DU). It’s powered by the -48 V telecom voltage and consumes 100 W typ. RAN connection is through two 10 Gb/s optical Ethernet ports (SFP+ form factor). It also contains a GPS receiver and support IEEE 1588v2 precision time protocol for network timing.