Mobile technology major NEC has started verification experiments to achieve 5G wireless communications in cooperation with telecom operator NTT Docomo.

NTT Docomo engineers are trying to achieve coordinated control between Distribution Units (DUs) by using a massive-element Active Antenna System (AAS) base station system belonging to a Centralized-Radio Access Network (C-RAN) configuration, enabling a Central Unit (CU) to control multiple DUs.

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Since telecom engineers will be arranging cells more densely for 5G roll outs, interference between DUs will become a major challenge.

NTT Docomo engineers did not perform coordination control in one set of testing verification experiments, resulting into significant interference and decrease in the quality of communications. Telecom engineers realized that this is because of the formation of beams and performance of downstreaming was without considering the influence of terminals controlled by other DU.

This apart, NTT Docomo engineers performed coordination control resulting into formation of beams through coordination between DUs — in other experiments. This prevents a decrease in the quality of communication caused by radio wave interference between DUs and improves the downlink throughput by as much as 50 percent.

“Moving forward, we aim to continue driving the advancement of high-speed, large capacity communications and sophisticated service functions that contribute to services provided by telecommunications carriers,” Kenichi Ito, deputy general manager, Wireless Network Development Division, NEC, said.

NEC will be participating at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) in Barcelona and showing its 5G solutions for telecom operators.