ETSI has formed a new industry specification group (ISG) tasked with standardising millimetre wave transmission technology.
The ISG mWT group counts Deutsche Telekom, DoCoMo, Telecom Italia and Vodafone among its operator membership, as well as a raft of vendors that includes Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, NEC and Nokia, among others.
Millimetre wave spectrum in the 30-GHz-300-GHz range is more readily available and offers wider channel bandwidth than frequencies in lower bands, and can support fibre-like connection speeds, ETSI said. It is therefore proving attractive to operators and vendors exploring prospective 5G technologies.
Renato Lombardi, vice president of Huawei’s European research centre, has been elected chairman, and NEC’s Nader Zei will take on the vice chairman role. The group held its first meeting on 14-15 January.
"ISG mWT was conceived as an industry wide platform to prepare for large scale usage of millimetre wave spectrum in current and future transmission networks by improving the conditions to make millimetre wave spectrum a suitable and convenient choice for all stakeholders," said Lombardi, in a statement late last week.
The group has begun work on the first five specifications, which aim to establish the maturity of the technology and the ecosystem, as well as analyse potential use cases, and regulatory and interference issues surrounding millimetre wave spectrum.
"The ISG aims to be a worldwide initiative with global reach and to address the whole industry: national regulators, standards organization s, telecom operators, product vendors and key component vendors," said Lombardi.
