5G base stations ‘will need 25Gbps fibre connections’, says Nokia
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5G base stations ‘will need 25Gbps fibre connections’, says Nokia

Nokia Anyhaul.jpg

Operators providing the new 5G mobile services will need to connect their base stations with 25Gbps fibre, Nokia is saying in advance of Mobile World Congress.

The equipment company is announcing a range of optical and IP products that it says are purpose-built for 5G fronthaul and edge cloud deployments – and they are designed to support 25Gbps speeds.

It is “now being selected in countries such as the US, Japan, China, and South Korea where we are helping the fast-movers transform to 5G”, said Phil Twist, Nokia’s VP of networks marketing and communications. “The expertise and invaluable best practices we gain will further simplify and reduce risk for other operators as they move to 5G.”

Nokia is calling the new range “Anyhaul” – to show that it can be used for backhaul – from the mobile network into the core network – and fronthaul, a relatively new word for the link between virtual radio network equipment and the base station antennas.

Nokia – like other network equipment producers – is making the announcements in the week before Mobile World Congress (MWC), the industry’s megashow that starts in Barcelona on Monday.

Ericsson announced some of its products and services at a London preview yesterday. Huawei has its announcements, also in London, tomorrow.

The company said: “Nokia today announces a raft of enhancements to its Anyhaul transport portfolio that help operators prepare their networks for 5G by delivering throughput speeds of up to 25Gbps to base stations.”

It added: “The launches span microwave, optical, IP and broadband technologies within a carrier software defined networking (SDN) transport architecture. This simplifies the integration of transport with cloud-based radio access and core networks, thereby enabling an automated end-to-end 5G network slicing and service provisioning system.”

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