Plasma Antennas Joins Small Cell Forum To Make 5G A Commercial Reality

Patented plasma silicon technology provides the price and performance breakthrough for 5G small cells

Plasma Antennas, the inventors of plasma silicon technology, recently announced that it has joined Small Cell Forum (SCF), the global industry body driving the wide-scale adoption of small cells and heterogeneous networks.

The new generation of 5G cellular networks will provide massive, instantly steerable bandwidth in mmWave frequencies, and will rely on a much denser network topology, where small cells will play a major part. But the drive to making 5G a commercial reality is being held back by today’s phased array antennas. Once considered state of the art, phased array technology does not provide the required range and has not developed to the point that it makes a commercial mmWave 5G service viable. These shortcomings are exacerbated when miniaturising base stations into small cells.

Plasma Antennas has solved the 5G antenna challenge, and unlocked the 5G small cell potential at the same time. Proven for the UK defence industry, Plasma Antennas’ patented plasma beam-forming technology is a market-defining innovation for mmWave applications; transforming performance, costs and simplicity. It has very low loss, low power consumption, no moving parts, no power limits, it can switch direction in just a few hundred nanoseconds and costs a fraction of phased array technology.

Small Cell Forum supports, promotes and helps drive the development and adoption of small cell technologies to improve the coverage, capacity and services delivered by mobile networks.

By promoting their use in operator networks, the ever-increasing consumer requirement for using mobile devices wherever we are, with ubiquitous coverage and an uninterrupted service, can become a reality. In 5G, URLLC (Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications) over mmWave links present particular challenges. Innovation will be required to meet the cost and performance goals that will make 5G attractive, usable and affordable.

“As the industry moves towards the 5G era, small cells have been accepted as critical in building out next generation networks, and antenna technology is a core component in making this a practical reality,” said David Orloff, Chair of Small Cell Forum. “We are delighted to welcome Plasma Antennas to the Forum and look forward to their involvement and input.”

Paul Phillipson, CEO of Plasma Antennas, said “I come from a background of Small Cell technology with Ubiquisys, ipaccess and Lucent. I have known for a long time that Small Cells are the answer to coverage and performance. 5G presents challenges that demand innovation and new approaches. Plasma Antennas bring niche defence and security technology which elegantly switches sector and scales to deliver significant cost and performance advantages in mass market telecoms at mmWave frequencies.”

About Plasma Antennas 
Plasma Antennas is a UK smart antenna research, design and manufacturing company who have supplied the UK defence and security industry for many years. Developed over more than a decade Plasma Antennas’ patented Plasma Silicon beam-forming technology is a market-defining innovation for mmWave applications, transforming performance, costs and simplicity. The company now wishes to exploit this technology, developed and independently verified for defence and security applications, for 5G, WiGig, connected and autonomous vehicles and other mass market applications. Plasma Silicon will change the economics of the multitude of applications that will require ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC). From mobile devices, games consoles, virtual and augmented reality, to autonomous vehicles and public safety. For more information, visit www.plasmaantennas.com.

About SCF
Small Cell Forum works to drive the wide-scale adoption of small cells and accelerate the delivery of integrated HetNets. Our work program is organized around two main streams – Deploying Hyperdense HetNets and Enabling Digitized Enterprise. These tie together all the Forum’s projects across the HetNet and create a powerful framework for the transition to 5G.

We are a carrier-led organization. This means our operator members establish requirements that drive the activities and outputs of our technical groups. Today our members are driving solutions that include small cell/Wi-Fi integration, SON evolution, virtualization of the small cell layer, driving mass adoption via multi-operator neutral host, ensuring a common approach to service APIs to drive commercialization and the integration of small cells into 5G standards evolution.

The SCF board includes Airspan, AT&T, Cisco, CommScope, Ericsson, Huawei, ip.access, Node-H, Nokia, Qualcomm, Reliance Jio, Samsung Electronics America, Softbank, SpiderCloud Wireless, and Vodafone.

For more information, visit http://www.smallcellforum.org/.