Page 25 - SAMENA Trends - October 2019

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Etisalat Completes Standalone 5G Call

Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was conducted using 100MHz of spectrum speed of 200Mbps. Unlike Non-Standalone
has completed what it claims was the first in the 3.5GHz band. Using a Standalone (NSA) 5G, Standalone does not use 4G LTE
Standalone 5G call in the Middle East and smartphone, download throughput of over for any control functions. Saeed Al Zarouni,
North Africa (MENA) region. The test call 1.5Gbps was achieved, with an upload Senior Vice President for Mobile Networks
at Etisalat, said: ‘This achievement has
positioned UAE on a global platform, giving
us an opportunity to share our experience
and set an example for other operators in
the region. The launch of 5G Standalone
will enable the application of 5G use cases
across industry verticals optimizing the
capabilities of the network. This will also
enable provisioning of the 5G network for
automated and AI-based technologies.’
According to TeleGeography’s
GlobalComms Database, Etisalat launched
its 3.5GHz 5G network in the UAE in
September 2018, though initially only in
fixed-wireless mode. It began offering true
mobile 5G services in May this year.

Etisalat, Nokia Demo World’s First Single-Carrier, Terabit-Per-Second

Field Trial

Nokia and Etisalat are laying claim to
trialing the world’s first terabit-per-
second, single-carrier data transmission
over an operator-deployed fiber network.
To put that speed in perspective, Nokia
said in its press release that a terabit-
per-second is enough bandwidth to
download the entire “Game of Thrones”
video series in HD in under two seconds.
The trial on United Arab Emirates-based
Etisalat’s network comes as Etisalat network simplicity, as well as increased continue to invest in coherent and optical
invests in core network infrastructure in spectral efficiency and capacity. It also component technologies required to meet
anticipation of a new generation of high- enables reduced cost per bit compared the 5G networking challenge at the lowest
bandwidth services including 5G. Nokia to optical networks composed of lower total cost of ownership for our customers.”
said the trial successfully transmitted rate channels, according to Nokia. Using Details of the trial with Etisalat were
a record 50.8 terabits per second using a single optical carrier operating at published in a post-deadline paper at
multiple wavelengths, each with a net 100 Gigabaud, the terabit wavelengths the European Conference on Optical
information rate of 1.3 terabits per second, tapped into Nokia Bell Labs’ probabilistic Communication, held last week in Dublin,
over a 93-kilometer fiber route of Etisalat’s constellation shaping (PCS) to intelligently Ireland. Nokia has a proven track record
wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) shape the signal to achieve maximum for advancing the frontiers of optical
network. The Nokia field trial showed that capacity for the specific fiber route. Nokia transmission. It was the first to demonstrate
Etisalat’s existing network could support said its Photonic Service Engine 3 was the single-carrier 100G transmission in a
the higher optical wavelength bit rates first coherent digital signal processor to deployed production network in 2007, and
that will be required to support high- implement PCS. “The introduction of 5G the first to commercialize single-carrier
bandwidth services such as 5G extreme will require a network that can support 100G and 200G wavelengths in 2010 and
mobile broadband, fiber-to-the-home dramatic increases in bandwidth in a 2013, respectively. More recently, the
(FTTH) and data center interconnect (DCI) dynamic fashion,” said Nokia’s Sam Bucci, Nokia Bell Labs optical research team
cloud services. In addition to the speeds, head of optical networking, in a statement. published the world’s first terabit-per-
higher bit rates per wavelength enable “This ground-breaking trial with Etisalat second transmission lab trials in 2015 and
power and space savings, improved is testimony to Nokia’s commitment to 2017.

25 OCTOBER 2019