Japanese tech firms unite on mmWave 40GHz and 60GHz wireless access network

A number of Japanese tech companies have announced the successful test and implementation of a jointly developed ‘wave-based, high-throughput wireless access network for large-scale data content distribution’ in the 40GHz and 60GHz band. Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Sony Corporation, Japan Radio Co (JRC) and KDDI R&D Laboratories (KDDI Labs) say the initiative is based on a next generation network using millimeter wave (mmWave)-based wireless systems, allowing a more ‘efficient use of the mmWave communication band, which is much less crowded than the wavebands below 6GHz’. Development of mmWave represents a key technology for the development of the heterogeneous networks (HetNets) that will be used for fifth-generation (5G) wireless cellular networks. In an attempt to resolve some of the obstacles relating to using higher frequency transmissions, Tokyo Tech, Sony, JRC and KDDI Labs ‘jointly developed a new wireless access network that combined 40GHz operation for outdoor networks with 60GHz operation for mobiles to enable large data size content delivery on the gigabyte scale’.