What to expect from MWC 2022?

MWC in Barcelona is back from the 28th of February to the 3rd of March and is set to welcome more than 1,800 exhibitors and 1,000 expert speakers from all over the world. On the first day of this mega industry event, we want to share our thoughts and predictions, and give some insight into our own MWC plans.

What are the main themes?

As well as hosting some of the world’s biggest tech brands and welcoming their announcements, MWC 2022 will be about a few key things. Firstly, a return to normality and seeing everyone face to face for the first time in a while will be important for everyone, but it will also provide an opportunity to look at 5G’s evolution over the next few years now that the first networks have been established and new use cases are starting to emerge.

The 5G evolution will rely on a few things to be successful; the first is to understand how to manage the vast amount of data generated by consumers and enterprises. The second is how to diversify 5G into specific deployment scenarios.

For Blu Wireless, MWC offers an opportunity to discuss how mmWave connectivity can work in all of these scenarios and use cases, and allow 5G networks to supercharge their performance by taking advantage of the high-speed connectivity mmWave can offer.

What was the impact of the pandemic?

The pandemic impacted the operational and business landscape of the mobile communications sector in a couple of significant ways. Firstly, the supply of components for manufacturing has become more challenging, with long lead times in the supply chain due to factory shutdowns and competition from other sectors for these services.

Secondly, the pandemic has driven an enormous change in the volume of data generated as people live more of their lives online. Increased demand for higher network capacity, higher speeds, and a better overall network have accelerated the adoption of 5G, and particularly high bandwidth technologies such as mmWave fronthaul and backhaul, which can meet the demands of fast scaling networks.

Emerging trends and technologies

ORAN continues to emerge at pace, with a large number of R&D projects and testbeds getting underway recently to promote interoperability of different vendors’ equipment. These projects provide a glimpse into the future development of 5G into a more open and simpler technology with an emerging ecosystem that will enable all types of small and large 5G networks for a wide range of use cases.

Future 5G use cases

There are a few different use cases that require much higher bandwidth, lower latency and quality of service that 5G networks can offer. For instance, use cases such as drones, V2X and automation of industrial processes that can help deliver efficiency, productivity, and other benefits.

One of the key GSMA events at MWC is the 5G IoT Summit, which will gather IoT industry experts to share the growth, development, megatrends, successes and opportunities of Massive IoT in the 5G era.

It’s interesting to note that the IoT proposition is slowly shifting from one of cost of data to service level, with some MNOs ditching the per Mb cost and introducing payments based around service level with unlimited data attached. This helps these use cases come to life as the cost of large amounts of IoT data has been prohibitive in the past. Additionally, the switch off of 3G networks that will occur by the end of 2023 means that more IoT connections will natively move to 4G and 5G networks from now on.

6G advancements

Europe has recently launched a new strategic partnership, The Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) which builds on two pillars: 6G research and innovation and 5G deployment actions funded by European or national funding programmes. So 6G is set to be an important agenda point at MWC.

6G will be another advancement in bandwidth and latency, and to achieve that, 6G networks will have to deploy in GHz and perhaps THz spectrum bands. As the major 60GHz network equipment and silicon vendor, Blu Wireless is well placed to take advantage of this new iteration of mobile networks.

What’s the latest from Blu Wireless?

Blu Wireless continues to invest in its high bandwidth networking products, with new generations in the roadmap offering twice the bandwidth of today’s products.

mmWave is finding new uses in mobile network deployments – supporting the low latency needs of ORAN and the need for an alternative to fibre in many industrial settings where mmWave backhaul networks offer a secure, high-quality cost-effective solution to supporting mass data generation from advanced industrial use cases.

If you’re currently working on a challenging networking project or are in need of exceptionally low latency for your applications, get in touch with us to see how we can help.

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