EU project will deliver millimetre-wave radio for 5G

The three year initiative, partially funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework programme, will draw on the expertise of CEA-Leti, Orange, Nokia, Intel, National Instruments, STMicroelectronics and the University of Surrey. MiWaveS is expected to have a major impact on the key enabling technologies for the next generation of heterogeneous wireless networks. "The flexible spectrum usage of the mmW frequency bands at 60GHz and 71 to 86GHz will enable data transmissions up to 10Gb/s for backhaul and 5Gb/s for mobile users access," said project manager and Leti research engineer Dr Laurent Dussopt. Dr Dussopt believes the deployment of mmW small cells in dense urban areas will not only improve the flexibility of the access infrastructure, but also the spectral and energy efficiency by low power access points using mmW spectrum resources. The project, he says, will lead to significant challenges on the system architecture, networking functions and algorithms, radio and antenna technologies.