A new whitepaper titled “Repeaters Cut 5G mm-Wave Costs in Half,” published by Mobile Experts Inc., validates the innovative Movandi 5G mmWave platform enables a cost savings of about 52% for the deployment of millimeter-wave solutions for 5G and beyond.
The study was conducted by Mobile Experts founder and chief analyst Joe Madden who over his more than 30 years of experience, has among other things, accurately predicted the rise of 5G fixed wireless, small cells, digital pre-distortion, and remote radio heads. The study’s goal was to assess whether a new network architecture leveraging repeaters could reduce millimeter-wave network costs. It concludes that the traditional 4G, 3G, and 2G network expansion approach that adds more radios to increase capacity and coverage simultaneously becomes too expensive in a 5G mm-wave scenario. Unlike pre-4G generations of radios, 5G gNodeBs have significantly more capacity but limited range. Therefore, expansion by adding more radios underutilizes radio capacity while dramatically increasing costs and installation complexity.
To make his determination, Madden based his study on a Dallas neighborhood covering 1.4 sq miles with a high density of sub-6 GHz traffic that during peak times generates about 31 Gb/s of traffic but by January 2024 will likely double to nearly 61 Gb/s. After comparing various deployment scenarios, he concluded that rather than employing large numbers of next-generation gNodeB (gNB) radios, the traditional approach that is used for 4G and its predecessor standards, an innovative approach using a mesh of smart repeaters can be an effective way to satisfy both coverage and capacity. He estimated a ten-year total cost of ownership for outdoor and substantial indoor coverage for each scenario:
- 95 gNodeB (gNB) units only: $12.M ten-year TCO.
- 10 gNB and 85 wired repeaters: $6.6M ten-year TCO, 48% savings.
- 10 gNB and 60 wired and 60 solar repeaters: = $6.0M ten-year TCO, 52% savings.
“This study confirms our findings that illustrate how the use of our technologies can dramatically reduce the complexity of millimeter-wave deployments while enhancing the end-user experience in reducing overall cost by more than 40%,” said Reza Rofougaran, CTO, and founder of Movandi. “We believe that only through the use of a new network design model can millimeter-wave frequencies be used cost-effectively to achieve 5G’s lofty goals. Movandi’s virtualized platform makes this possible in virtually any indoor or outdoor environment, including office buildings, stadiums, and other large venues, moving vehicles, and RF-restrictive areas that would otherwise be too costly to deploy.”
“Our benchmarks with multiple mobile operators reveal that the costs of permitting, fiber, and power to a millimeter-wave network can be significant,” says Madden. “The use of repeaters to ‘spread’ the RF capacity throughout an urban area can effectively cut the operator’s cost dramatically.”
The Movandi approach is unique based on patented 5G millimeter-wave chipsets, RF power amplifiers, MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antennas, BeamXR smart repeater modules, and BeamX algorithms and software. It provides mesh networking capability with redundant and dynamic routing and will soon provide control via cloud-based data centers to balance and optimize network routing based on traffic and quality of connectivity. These innovations reduce the required number of gNodeBs through load-balancing traffic across networks to provide continuous connectivity, even in moving vehicles.
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