Nokia announces next evolution of 5G microwave transport portfolio

In its second significant product announcement in a matter of days, Nokia has expanded its portfolio of mobile transport products with a range of indoor and outdoor solutions for communications service providers and enterprises.

The expanded Wavence portfolio is designed to provide a complete microwave solution for all use cases covering short-haul, long-haul, E-Band and software-defined networking (SDN), delivering cost-effective, high-capacity ultra-broadband transceivers to support operators with 5G networks.

The range is available in two compact Split Mount solutions for 5G backhauling enabled by the MSS-E and MSS-HE indoor units. These are compact, cost-optimised units claimed to be the smallest on the market, providing high scalability and high throughput.

The units can also handle a temperature range spanning -40 degrees to 65 degrees Celsius without fans. This is said to improve reliability and decrease the need for periodic maintenance.

At the same time, Nokia is introducing a full outdoor nodal configuration. It includes a module called a Networking Interface Module (NIM), which will see use in new deployments or upgrades to an installed UBT base. The solution can be plugged onto a standard Ultra-Broadband Transceiver (UBT) to enhance its outdoor capabilities, offering multiple directions and interfaces as well as carrier aggregation.

One NIM attaches to all UBT types, specifically UBT-m (80GHz), UBT-T (twin) and UBT-S (single). Security protection is delivered via the encryption on 5G microwave radios, as well as readiness for Federal Information Processing Standards certification and encryption.

The Wavence portfolio supports microwave in traditional bands (6-42 GHz), and E-Band (80 GHz) leveraging Nokia Bell Labs innovation. Nokia said it provides the maximum efficiency thanks to full carrier aggregation, including in all 5G backhaul use cases across different frequency bands.

The introduction of Wavence technology comes just as Nokia announced it was upgrading its AirFrame datacentre solutions with third-generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors to increase compute capacity, and achieve faster data lanes and higher memory capacity. The technology is designed for running virtualised and cloud-native software workloads in the 5G era.

The inclusion of the Intel Xeon Scalable Processors will provide faster speeds, superior data throughput and lower energy consumption to support Nokia’s 5G AirScale Cloud RAN and 5G Cloud Core solutions.

As a result of Nokia and Intel’s working partnership, the AirFrame products will be upgraded immediately following the availability of the processors to meet the requirements demanded by 5G technologies. Leveraging Intel’s 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor, Nokia AirFrame can better power Nokia’s AirScale all-in-cloud virtual RAN (vRAN) and 5G core solutions.

“Transforming the network with technology innovations from the core to the edge enables the full potential of 5G,” said Cristina Rodriguez, vice-president and general manager of Intel’s wireless access network division.

“Through our continued collaboration with Nokia, AirFrame will take advantage of the enhanced capabilities offered by the latest generation of Intel Xeon Scalable processors and our platform ingredients including Ethernet adapters and accelerators, giving operators a high performance and optimised solution that can scale across their network workloads from core to edge,” she said.