PARTNER CONTENT: Recently, Huawei launched EasyBlink 2.0, the industry’s smallest and lightest 5G pole site AAU product. It integrates a 32T32R multi-antenna unit into a compact form factor of just 20 L and 10 kg, providing quick 5G coverage in streets and residential areas. In addition to EasyBlink 2.0, Huawei has launched a wide variety of other simplified pole site solutions, including TDD+FDD dual-band EasyMarco 3.0 and BookRRU 3.0, to help operators fill network coverage holes and increase capacity at hotspots on demand.

Global 5G commercial rollout continues to accelerate, creating increasingly higher requirements for 5G networks. More than 170 5G networks have been built and 1.5 million base stations deployed, providing 5G services to more than 500 million users globally with a 10 times better experience over 4G networks. As 5G commercial expansion enters a new phase, it is more important than ever to guarantee a consistent experience and ensure the capabilities required for industry digitalization. As Yang Chaobin, President of Wireless Solution, Huawei, highlighted in his keynote speech, “The next step is to build ubiquitous Gigabit networks, with continuous coverage extended from hotspots to all scenarios, with Gbps speeds available from a handful of users to all users, and with digitalization enabled for pilots to support all industries for a 5Gigaverse society.”

Pole sites support on-demand deployment for improving coverage and capacity at hotspots, and therefore are essential for building high-quality 5G networks across all scenarios. From Huawei’s point of view, 5G requires 3D networking that involves macro base stations, pole sites, and indoor products to maximize the value of macro base stations and to build the continuous 5G networks required to enable both toB and toC services in a 5Gigaverse society. In the 4G era, Huawei already helped global operators build leading-edge networks by combining macro base stations with both pole and indoor solutions. In 2019 when operators started to commercialize 5G networks, Huawei joined operators in China to release the 5G 3D networking solution. The solution builds three-layer 3D networks based on Huawei’s premier 5G macro base stations, pole sites, and indoor products and solutions across all scenarios, providing seamless 5G coverage in China.

With Huawei’s 5G 3D networking, macro base stations and indoor products provide continuous coverage and capacity layers in outdoor and indoor areas, respectively, and the pole sites supplement macro base stations due to their light weight, smaller dimensions, and adaptability to various deployment approaches and environments. Operators often face challenges with regards to site acquisition and elevated costs for building networks in streets, residential areas, scenic places, and many other scenarios. This is where the pole sites come in, enabling the quick deployment of 5G networks by using street lamp poles and traffic light poles to enhance coverage and capacity.

In 2021, Huawei added a new pole solution, EasyBlink 2.0, to help quickly eliminate coverage holes. This joins the simplified solution series from 2020, which consists of TDD+FDD dual-band EasyMacro 3.0 and BookRRU 3.0. This new product is the smallest and lightest pole AAU product the industry has yet produced. By leveraging optimized antenna arrays, it packs up to 32T32R multi-antenna capabilities in a small factor form weighing only 10 kg and with a 20 L dimension. This means that it is an ideal option to enhance network coverage and capacity in areas such as streets where coverage holes or capacity shortages can frequently occur. Now, Huawei is able to provide a complete series of 5G pole products to meet the diverse demand of operators looking to flexibly and conveniently deploy networks that require TDD-FDD coordination, 4G-5G coordination, and coverage and capacity supplementation among many other functionalities across all scenarios.

Huawei’s series pole sites have been put into commercial use worldwide. This comes as a result of the successful experience gained from 4G development and the relentless efforts to innovate based on customer requirements. Huawei’s simplified pole site series products, such as EasyMacro 3.0 and BookRRU 3.0, support FDD-TDD converged deployment and also 4G-5G coordination. They have posted large-scaled deployment in Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xiamen, Harbin, Dalian, Nanjing, Nanchang, Hefei, Jinan, and other cities in China, as well as major cities in countries such as Switzerland. Featuring a high integration, ease of deployment, and macro-micro coordination, they will, as they always have, continue to play a critical role in enabling operators to solve the problems related to site acquisition and scenario-based flexible deployment as they explore eliminating coverage holes and fulfilling hotspot capacity needs.