Ericsson, MediaTek achieve speeds of up to 5.1Gbps through mmWave, mid-band aggregation

Swedish telecoms gear maker Ericsson and Taiwanese fabless chipmaker MediaTek said they have jointly achieved speeds of up to 5.1Gbps on a single device using mmWave in a 5G Standalone (5G SA) mode combined with the mid-band spectrum.

For The 5G Dual Connectivity or New Radio (NR) DC demo, the companies aggregated 800MHz of high-band spectrum and 60MHz of mid-band which was sent over-the-air to a device equipped with the MediaTek M80 5G modem, while Ericsson provided its Radio System hardware and 5G Core with an IP-flow centric architecture, according to a joint statement.

The demo concluded that the mmWave can be utilised effectively in the new 5G SA architecture as the connection resides in both mmWave and mid-band spectrum and will enable higher uplink and downlink data rates for 5G SA than currently deployed, it added.

It will also help pave the way for new use cases for mobile broadband and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), such as gaming and immersive media.

“This 5G technology breakthrough with our partner MediaTek is the direct result of our efforts to meet the evolving connectivity needs of our customers worldwide. We believe that New Radio Dual Connectivity will be a very appealing option to many customers globally as part of their 5G Standalone deployment strategies. It will enable millimeter wave in the multi-layer network with speeds of over 5Gbps,” said Hannes Ekstrom, Head of Product Line 5G RAN, Ericsson.

“NR Dual Connectivity is one of the latest 5G technology developments that will directly contribute to next-generation 5G services, growing capacity, performance and enabling innovative new use-cases across business, industry and consumer ecosystems,” said JS Pan, General Manager of Wireless Communication System and Partnership, MediaTek.

Ericsson said it will release the NR DC functionality commercially during the third business quarter of 2021.