Korean vendor Samsung Electronics has recently announced that its commercial 5G virtualized RAN (vRAN) now supports its latest C-Band Massive MIMO radios.
In a release, the company also said it achieved a 5G vRAN speed exceeding 1.5 Gbps on C-Band spectrum. With these results – performed in a demonstration at Samsung’s lab in Korea – the company continues to expand the limits of vRAN performance from low-band support last year, to the mid-band.
Samsung is also currently conducting field trials using these products, and plans to commercialize the solution during 2021.
The demonstration leveraged E-UTRAN New Radio Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) technology combining 40 megahertz of 4G frequencies and 100 megahertz of 5G frequencies on the C-Band spectrum. Through the dual connectivity approach, the Korean vendor achieved 2.25 Gbps overall on a single user device. For the demonstration, Samsung used its latest virtualized RAN, C-Band 64T64R Massive MIMO radio, and cloud-native 5G Core.
Samsung’s vRAN, which is already in use providing services on low-band spectrum in the U.S., proved its capability to support Massive MIMO radios through this achievement, the vendor said.
“By combining our true vRAN solution and powerful C-Band 64T64R Massive MIMO radio for the first time in the industry, Samsung achieved a significant breakthrough, increasing the throughput ten-fold, improving user experience and showing our leadership in virtualized technology,” said Junehee Lee, EVP and head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung highlighted that the new solution demonstrates how the company’s vRAN delivers performance parity with traditional hardware-based equipment, while covering spectrum from low-band to mid-band, and supporting both outdoor and indoor radio solutions for both carrier and private networks.
“Operators consistently tell us that RAN virtualization is a priority as they look to accelerate their 5G network and service deployments,” said Peter Jarich, head of GSMA Intelligence. “Samsung’s latest demonstrations will be well-received, signaling that 5G vRAN is a viable option, achieving performance on par with purpose-built hardware.”
Samsung recently announced its complete C-Band solutions portfolio, including macro and micro radios, indoor solutions, network optimization tools as well as te C-Band Massive MIMO radio which has already been commercially shipped to the U.S. The company’s 5G vRAN solution was rolled out during 2020.
