Japanese vendor NEC Corporation has announced the successful completion of a Proof of Concept (PoC) trial with South Korea’s KT Corporation for a 5G wireless backhaul solution that utilises E-Band spectrum (70GHz-80GHz). In a press release confirming the development it was revealed that the PoC was conducted at Phoenix Park Ski World in PyeongChang, South Korea, using KT’s commercial mobile network infrastructure.
KT aims to launch 5G trial services in 2018, planning to introduce radio transmission using E-Band spectrum in order to establish mobile backhaul networks for 5G services, especially in mountainous areas where it is difficult to lay optical fibre. In this latest technology trial, the iPASOLINK EX, NEC’s ultra-compact microwave communications system that operates with E-Band spectrum, was used to interconnect KT’s LTE base stations with high-speed and high-capacity wireless links. According to the vendor, as iPASOLINK EX supports ultra-multilevel modulation (256QAM) technology, high capacity transmission of up to 3.2Gbps is possible, while its support of narrow band transmission (channel width of 250MHz and 500MHz) enables telecom operators to efficiently utilise frequency bands.