Nokia’s 360 High Gain 5G mmWave technology combines very high gain with a 360 field of view. The problem with mmWave is that its propagation characteristics are relatively poor, especially when it comes to obstacles. In its current form, it requires an uninterrupted line-of-sight to work, which severely limits its use in most environments.

Nokia’s 360 High Gain technology has now overcome the challenge by both amplifying available signals and dynamically finding the strongest connection.

Fixed Wireless Access broadband (FWA) devices typically use 4G or 5G mobile signals for high-speed home connectivity. Most 5G FWA deployments today leverage low band (sub 2Ghz) or mid-band (2-6 Ghz) radio frequencies, but as FWA networks develop, additional spectrum will be needed to drive future growth.

Operators are now looking to increase speeds by using even more frequencies, notably from the high band spectrum known as mmWave (24 GHz to 40 GHz). However, higher radio frequencies have propagation challenges as they are more likely to be impeded by physical obstacles.

Nokia’s 360 High Gain 5G mmWave technology captures a 360 mmWave fingerprint of the indoor environment, picks up direct and reflected signals from any direction, and adapts to the changing environment, through advanced analytics.

Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks at Nokia said “Making indoor, self-installable mmWave FWA viable in an urban indoor environment is crucial for FWA growth. The addition of mmWave to the 5G FWA market will deliver the 5 to 10 times more capacity that is needed to support the ever more demanding subscribers and services. I am extremely proud of our Fixed Network team who have notched up yet another technical first”.