Samsung Electronics said telecom operator Verizon has deployed 5G systems in five U.S. cities as part of starting 5G technology trials in April for wireless customers.
The customer trials in April will deliver fixed wireless access to customers through 5G connectivity in order to assess user experiences, evaluate the performance of 5G technologies, and help streamline the delivery of mmWave 5G across various environments.
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The 5G trials involve network systems, including the use of 28GHz millimeter wave spectrum and advanced beam-forming antenna technology.
Samsung’s 5G Access Units, installed throughout a city’s business and residential areas, will link radio signals to a virtualized core network that is set up within Verizon’s data centers. Samsung’s core solution is software-driven and designed on a scalable platform to accommodate operator needs in future.
“Delivering 5G to these pilot customers is an important step in assessing the business model and customer experience for delivering wireless broadband via 5G,” said Roger Gurnani, chief information and technology architect at Verizon.
The 5G system, in pre-commercial testing, which began in December 2016, has demonstrated multi-gigabit throughputs at radio distances of up to 1,500 feet (nearly 500 meters) across each of the different environments selected for the customer trials.
Jaime Fink, co-founder and CPO of Mimosa, said: “Delivering mmWave broadband connectivity in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments, such as suburban and urban areas, is extremely problematic over the last quarter mile. This is because signals can be affected by environmental factors such as foliage and solid constructions, typical in suburban areas, where almost 80 percent of the US citizens reside.”
Samsung 5G
The Samsung 5G system is designed to be upgradable to support 3GPP standards for New Radio and Next-Generation Core, once available.
Samsung said Verizon’s 5G customer trials will start in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas and Washington, D.C., with a fifth location in Michigan starting trials later in Q2 2017.
“Rather than using the challenging, unproven mmWave channels for 5G, the industry should use the sub-6GHz spectrum bands, which have incredible propagation characteristics through foliage and construction materials. New spectrum reuse technologies are emerging which can coordinate transmissions across various unlicensed and licensed spectrum bands, while reducing interference,” said Jaime Fink.
Samsung said 5G trials will incorporate Samsung’s pre-commercial 5G solution featuring: Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), a window antenna, and its 5G radio and core solutions. Verizon will include fixed wireless network service that provides wireless Internet access and Voice over IP (VoIP) calling.
“5G challenges we will address, and the customer feedback we receive will help lay the foundation for future business models and customer applications,” said Youngky Kim, head of the Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung holds a host of essential patents related to the new 5G standards. Samsung announced the commercial readiness of its 5G integrated chipset, which will enable operators like Verizon to deploy high-efficiency, low cost radios in a compact form factor and overcome high-band spectrum challenges.
