Nokia and AT&T are working together to validate DmMIMO and evaluate the proof-of-concept technology in AT&T labs

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Nokia partners with AT&T to develop DmMIMO technology. (Credit: pikkuanna/Wikipedia.org)

Nokia’s research arm Bell Labs is partnering AT&T to develop a distributed massive multiple-input multiple-output (DmMIMO) technology to substantially boost uplink capacity and speeds in 5G networks.

According to Nokia, DmMIMO enables devices to make use of propagation of signals to various cells or antenna panels in a network when setting up a link. This will help convert noise into a useful signal and ramp up the uplink throughput, said the Finnish firm.

From multiple antenna panels and cell sites, the data transmission is put together via distributed baseband processing. The processing load between the cell site radio units and the central processing unit is said to be divided in a new manner to decrease the fronthaul capacity to cell sites in order to reduce the cost.

Nokia chief strategy and technology officer Nishant Batra said: “Addressing uplink speeds is becoming critical as consumers are increasingly becoming content creators as well as content consumers, video conferencing has become a cornerstone of the teleworking era, and many of the applications in the industrial internet of things require higher uplink speeds.

“When 5G-Advanced networks come online, we will see the network enhanced in multiple dimensions, expanding and extending its capabilities.”

Nokia is working together with AT&T on validating DmMIMO and evaluating the proof-of-concept technology in AT&T labs.

The DmMIMO simulations of Bell Labs are said to have shown increases in 5G uplink capacity between 60%-90%, when compared to systems that are similarly configured and have a single panel.

Nokia claimed that DmMIMO produces notable increases in uplink capacity without compromising performance.

Apart from improvements in uplink, the shift to DmMIMO can possibly change the configuration of networks by enabling deployments with smaller antenna arrays per site, said Nokia. This will reduce weight and thereby lead to smaller and lighter components along with lesser power consumption.

AT&T executive vice president and network services CTO Andre Fuetsch said: “Newer applications in the 5G-Advanced timeframe, such as eXtended Reality (XR), are expected to be more demanding on the uplink compared to regular broadband traffic. Technologies such as distributed massive MIMO show potential to improve uplink capacity in the right scenarios.

“DmMIMO is also a technology that shows potential for the next generation of wireless networks. Therefore, this strategic technology collaboration with Nokia may help provide learnings with long-term benefits to both companies.”

Last month, AT&T joined the Ericsson Startup 5G innovation collaboration.