22 Jun 2016

Cambium Networks launches Massive MU-MiMo wireless access point

Cambium Networks, a global wireless broadband solutions provider, has debuted the PMP 450m, the first product to include the company’s cnMedusa™ technology, which it claims allows MNOs to offer “5G like speeds surpassing DSL and cable while offering throughput comparable to fibre".

Cambium also claims that cnMedusa is the first commercially available Massive Multi-user, multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MiMo) platform for fixed wireless broadband. The 14x14 integrated antenna array exceeds the planned implementation of 8x8 MiMo for both 802.11AC Wave 2 and LTE-A and yields the ability to support up to seven simultaneous carrier chains. The spectral efficiency of the cnMedusa-enabled PMP 450m allows wireless service providers to offer triple play services to existing subscribers and add new customers without requiring additional scarce and expensive spectrum.

Developed over the course of three years at Cambium Labs, cnMedusa’s Massive MU-MIMO technology offers a three-to-four fold increase in network capacity.

Cambium argues that consumer demand for streaming media like Netflix, coupled with the need to support the symmetric traffic required by Cloud based services and to provide higher capacity service level agreements are driving the need for this innovation.

“cnMedusa will allow us to bring Ultra Broadband services at competitive prices to outdoor deployments we never could have reached previously,” said Luca Spada, president and CEO of Eolo SpA, an Italian internet service provider. “The Massive MIMO technology in the PMP 450m allows us to build on our current deployments, using the same spectrum and subscriber equipment as before, while increasing throughput to existing customers with bandwidth to support network expansion.”