Vodafone, EMITE and Ericsson have announced the first massive MIMO OTA realistic laboratory test for 5G SA at the n78 band. The achievement is an important milestone for meeting most diverse requirements of future applications in 5G on a network.
The demonstration included a Base Station prototype by Ericsson, a real 5G SA UE prototype and the EMITE F200 hybrid anechoic-reverberation chamber, achieving a single-user data rate of ~400 Mbps under outdoor-to-indoor OTA realistic fading. The tests also produced RF latencies below 0.15 ms and End-to-End latencies below 3.5ms under realistic fading. The results did not require calibration on the phased-array, thereby greatly reducing testing costs.
Andreas Dorstel, Head of Vodafone Innovation Park Labs, “We can now test everything under real live conditions before rolling out in life networks”.
“The results highlight the importance of accurate and realistic 5G OTA testing and reinforce the potential of 5G networks to deliver what is eagerly expected, taking a step further into a real deployment in the near future”, said Prof. David A. Sanchez-Hernandez, CEO of EMITE.
Dr. Eric Kuisch, CTO Vodafone Germany, “With our radio chamber we can now ambitiously test the equipment and system technology that our manufacturers have delivered”.
Stefan Koetz, chairman of Ericsson GmbH in Germany, “Since 5G will be an important technology in the context of mobility and industry 4.0 in addition to the enhanced mobile broadband experience, it is important for us as a network supplier with high safety and quality standards to test the use of technology – in this context we are pleased to equip the testing chamber with our latest technology”.
