NEC Corporation (NEC) announced the demonstration of bidirectional 10Gbps outdoor transmission.

NEC used all-outdoor packet microwave radios with Radio Frequency (RF) IC compatible with the D-band (130-174.8GHz) to meet the demand for 5G networks.

NEC in a statement said that it plans to apply this technology to its iPASOLINK series of compact microwave radio products and aims to expand its usage into both mobile fronthaul and backhaul networks.

The expansion of radio bandwidth or higher modulation schemes will be mandatory for wireless transmissions since the transmission capacity of mobile fronthaul and backhaul is expected to reach 10Gbps ~ 100Gbps in line with the anticipated growth in 5G data traffic.

Specifically, the wide bandwidth of D-band (130-174.8GHz) has recently been attracting attention.

NEC has developed RF modules comprised of an RF IC chipset operational in the D-band to enable this 10Gbps outdoor transmission. The RF ICs, flipchips-mounted on a quartz glass plate, have multiple functions, such as amplifying and converting frequency.

NEC has achieved this 10Gbps outdoor transmission at a distance of 150m in D-band with Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) by using all-in-one prototype equipment. The frequency points for the transmitter and the receiver were 142GHz and 157Hz respectively, the modulation scheme was 128QAM, and modulation speed was 1.6Gbaud.

NEC engineers conducted additional field tests during a 4 month period over an approximate 1km link distance as part of preparation for practical applications.

NEC aims to develop equipment applicable to mobile fronthaul and backhaul networks for 5G base stations by utilizing the D-band RF technology and the knowledge of propagation characteristics obtained from this trial.