Ericsson has launched three new radios in its Massive MIMO portfolio and expanded its RAN Compute portfolio with six RAN Compute products to assist mobile operators to accelerate 5G mid-band rollouts.
The new solutions are powered by Ericsson Silicon – the company’s system on a chip (SoC) range that provides advanced processing capabilities for a rapid evolution of energy-efficient and high-performing networks.
The weight of Massive MIMO antennas and their energy-consumption have been major barriers to their adoption. Ericsson has addressed that with products that are much slimmer, up to 45 percent lighter, and 20 percent more energy efficient, Johanna Alvarado, senior analyst at ABI Research, said.
This is an important development that will stimulate the adoption of Massive MIMO technology and will no doubt help operators lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by reducing the installation cost, their site occupancy, and energy bill all while improving overall network performance.
The new family of Ericsson RAN compute basebands is another game-changer that provides 40 percent to 50 percent higher data traffic with 15 percent to 20 percent lower power consumption. The new flexible platforms will enable MNOs to meet every site need, by supporting all-G technologies and different network deployment environments.
Thus, MNOs will be able to deliver higher capacity cell-sites with less amount of equipment, less battery backup, and cooling requirements.
ABI Research expects shipments of Massive MIMO radios to grow from 1.8 million in 2020 to a staggering 7.7 million in 2026, representing almost 30 percent of the global cell site footprint by 2026.
ABI Research estimates that the shipments of 5G baseband units grow from 1.093 million in 2020 to 3.5 million in 2026 with a CAGR of 21.7 percent
Per Narvinger, head of Product Area Networks, at Ericsson, said: “With our portfolio, communications service providers can speed up their mid-band deployments efficiently with superior performance for their users, while reducing energy consumption.”
Ericsson’s new mid-band Massive MIMO 5G radios from its Antenna-Integrated Radio (AIR) portfolio, is designed to ease mid-band deployment for service providers. This enables a full-fledged 5G user experience for subscribers, while reducing site footprint and increasing capacity by more than three times.
Ericsson has advanced its RAN Compute portfolio with six new products. These include both indoor and outdoor options for 4G expansions and mid-band 5G rollouts, with up to 50 percent higher throughput and 15 to 20 percent lower energy consumption.
Ed Gubbins, principal analyst at GlobalData, said: “Ericsson’s Massive MIMO radios are an industry standout in terms of compact form factors and lightweight designs, which should help operators overcome deployment challenges. In addition, the stability and strength of Ericsson’s custom silicon strategy also sets them apart.”
