• Working with 3GPP on Beam Management standards for 5G rollout
• Delivering more radio coverage with less equipment

Pivotal Commware, inventors of Holographic Beam Forming (HBF) - a new technique designed to expand the capacity and spectral efficiency of 4G and 5G networks - has joined leading carriers and OEMs to hammer out 3GPP standards associated with 5G beamforming.

New technologies and millimeter wave spectrum allocations have made beamforming antennas both commercially feasible and necessary to deliver on 5G, says Pivotal. Until 5G, antennas were directed by upper layer functionality.  Now, software-defined antennas (SDAs) acquire information about the mobile user environment that determines beam shaping and steering, and negotiate as full partners with upper layers to optimize the link.

3G and 4G spectrum rely on limited antenna down-tilt functionality standardized outside of 3GPP by the Antenna Interface Standards Group (AISG).  Because advanced beamforming will be integral to 5G, 3GPP is relying on Pivotal and other 3GPP delegates to define an abstraction layer of beam options supported by an open interface.  This way, interoperability can be maximized among technology and component providers for integration in both network equipment and test equipment.

“In my career, the antenna has always been the Cinderella of wireless communications.  Now, it’s finally going to the ball,” said Brian Deutsch, CEO of Pivotal Commware. “Beamformers offering low cost, size, weight, power and the ability to conform to curved surfaces found in street furniture, will be indispensable to widespread 5G implementation and need to be part of the 3GPP standard.”

OK, so it’s not ‘massive’ MIMO, more ‘Useful’ MIMO. Antenna specialists, Taoglas and Adant say they’ve been able to double antenna throughput and coverage using their software-based beam-steering technology to adjust their just launched Taoglas Shiftä antenna in real time to locate the best signal. The software is designed to deliver the best signal propagation and reception for mobile and stationary applications, both indoor and outdoor for retail, agriculture, transportation and other industries.  The antenna and LTE module are combined in a single enclosure.

“As 5G networks emerge, the coverage problem multiplies, with base stations and access points needed every few hundred feet,” claims Ronan Quinlan, co-CEO and co-founder of Taoglas. “[Our solution] completely changes the economics of wireless networks by delivering increased throughput and coverage with less equipment.”

For more information about the Taoglas Shift, visit http://www.taoglas.com/, or visit Taoglas at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 26-March 1 in Hall 5, Stand 5I10.