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U.K. incumbent says technology removes need to invest in dedicated fibre connections.
BT on Tuesday claimed a world first by successfully using G.fast to operate a cloud RAN (C-RAN) over copper lines.
C-RAN is designed to improve the performance and lower the cost of operating mobile networks by virtualising and centralising a cell tower’s baseband unit (BBU) and connecting it to the tower’s transmitters via a dedicated fibre link.
However, BT said on Tuesday that researchers at its Adastral Park R&D centre used G.fast – a technology that uses a broader frequency range to increase the peak speed of copper-based broadband access services to up to 1 Gbps, albeit over short distances – to do the same job as a fibre link.
Removing the need for a dedicated fibre connection has the potential to significantly lower the cost of C-RAN deployment for operators, BT said.
"These technologies will play a key role in 4G networks and will be fundamental to 5G architectures. The trials are another step towards a fixed and mobile network which will support customers’ increasing demands for data," said Tim Whitley, managing director for research and innovation at BT, in a statement.
The test, carried out with U.S. chip maker Cavium, delivered cellular data over copper lines at speeds of 150 Mbps-200 Mbps.
"Our successful testing has laid the groundwork for enabling LTE deployments today and 5G deployments in the future using G.fast," said Raj Singh, general manager of Cavium’s wireless broadband group.
