Nokia has launched Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) software upgrade for existing Nokia AirScale base stations, allowing 5G networks and devices to use 4G spectrum resources and speeding 5G time to deployment.
Nokia’s DSS solution, delivered as a software upgrade to existing Nokia AirScale base stations, not only allows 5G devices and radios to use 4G spectrum, but also enables dynamic sharing between 2G, 3G and 4G networks as well.
DSS helps speed 5G coverage and 5G network rollout by allowing reuse of 4G base stations, radios and spectrum to support 5G devices.
Initial deliveries of Nokia’s DSS solution are planned to start in April 2020, with volume shipments expected by July, in line with the availability of DSS-capable mobile devices.
The new base stations also support a functional split between real-time and non-real-time traffic. That provides a balance between processing and transport costs. Time-critical functions are handled locally, to reduce latency, while other traffic can take advantage of longer backhaul links.
The more the concentration and processing of non-time-critical traffic, the lower network costs can be.
DSS is among several new capacity tools mobile operators are using. Spectrum sharing allows mobile operators to share existing licensed spectrum with incumbent users, without forcing the incumbents to vacate the bands. That adds new capacity fast, without disrupting legacy use cases, and arguably at lower cost than spectrum clearing and reassignment.
Spectrum aggregation allows a device to simultaneously use both licensed mobile spectrum and unlicensed spectrum such as Wi-Fi, boosting bandwidth.
Dynamic spectrum sharing allows mobile radios to use legacy network capacity without the cost and expense of spectrum clearing (moving existing users off the band; network decommissioning; spectrum reassignment).
All those tools mean mobile operators can move faster, at lower cost, than they otherwise would have been able to do.
Nokia also launched new AirScale products, including compact dual-band and triple-band remote radio heads to support cell sites. A remote radio head includes the radio frequency portions of a standard mobile base station, without the baseband signal processing functions.
It is a small outdoor module supporting transmit and receive functions, filtering, amplification, analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog converters and up/down converters. It is connected by optical fiber to a remote signal processing location. Remote radio heads reduce network cost by centralizing signal processing and distributing the radio functions. An RRH can also provide advanced monitoring and control features allowing operators to optimize performance from a remote, centralized location.
Nokia also introduced several new high-performance massive MIMO adaptive antennas to deliver 5G coverage and high capacity.
