Deutsche Telekom, in partnership with Ericsson, have successfully demonstrated what they call a ‘fibre-like’ data transmission rate of 40Gb/s with a millimetre wave link as part of a project undertaken at the Deutsche Telekom service centre in Athens.

The live trial was completed over a hop distance of 1.4km in the millimetre wave (E-band) spectrum, using Ericsson’s MINI-LINK 6352 microwave solution and Router 6000. The companies describe the project as an important milestone in the evolution from today’s 10Gb/s reality toward the 100Gb/s future, proving the commercial viability of future wireless backhaul technology.

The test also focused on the stringent latency requirements in 5G network architecture to support low latency or ultra-low latency use cases. The round-trip latency performance of the link tested was less than 100 microseconds.

Commenting on the results, Alex Jinsung Choi, SVP strategy and technology innovation at Deutsche Telekom, said: ‘A high-performance transport connection will be key to support high data throughput and enhanced customer experience in next-generation networks. While fibre is an important part of our portfolio, it is not the only option for backhaul. Together with our partners, we have demonstrated fibre-like performance is also possible with wireless backhauling/X-Haul solutions.’

Added Per Narvinger, head of product area networks at Ericsson: ‘Our joint innovation project shows that higher capacity microwave backhaul will be an important enabler of high-quality mobile broadband services when 5G becomes a commercial reality.’

Deutsche Telekom also collaborated recently with Telefónica Deutschland to speed up the expansion of their mobile communications networks, with the connection of at least 5,000 Telefónica Deutschland mobile base stations with Deutsche Telekom's fibre-optic network, long-term.