Arctic Semiconductor 5G private networks tech gains 3GPP accreditation

As businesses across all industry sectors such as factories, ports, mines and hotels embrace 5G private networks to take advantage of dedicated and defined enhanced data transmission speeds, reduced latency, and enhanced security and management, Arctic Semiconductor has announced that its IceWings 4x4 transceiver is seeing use in a small cell platform, allowing private network developers to deploy custom 5G networks at scale, which has just passed specification from mobile standards body the 3GPP.

Arctic believes private 5G networks offer unparalleled connectivity within defined boundaries. In addition, it said using distributed small cells, known for their efficient power usage, lays the foundation for these exclusive networks, resulting in cost reduction and enhancing the feasibility of such tailored services for businesses.

The 5G platform is said to be one of the first open software small cell platforms with the highest performance, meeting 3GPP standard requirements at the lowest power consumption.

The platform – described as a pivotal milestone in 5G infrastructure development and soon available in mass production – brings together components from various component manufacturers to offer the desired coverage, power consumption and value-added features for a much lower cost of deployment.

The open, universal small cell platform operates at any 5G FR1 frequency band from 600MHz to 7.2GHz. Two different variants of the platform are available for bands n78 and n79 working in multiple countries.

In addition to IceWings, the platform includes Skyworks’ family of power amplifiers and timing products, as well as Synergy Design’s 5G virtual radio access networks (vRAN) offerings.

The small cell platform also includes Synergy’s 5G Smart RAN service, which is said to deliver carrier-grade RAN performance while allowing a rapid time-to-market for the small cell platform.

Skyworks power amplifiers (PA) are the key element to the low-power component of the 3GPP-compliant small cell platform. Arctic’s digital pre-distortion (DPD) model and methodology uses the PAs with intelligent algorithms to create a low-power design while maintaining the optimal signal quality and coverage. 

“Achieving 3GPP compliance marks a significant milestone for Arctic Semiconductor, Skyworks, and Synergy,” said Brandon Hoff, research director at analyst firm IDC. “Their new transceiver will enable telecommunications providers to reduce costs and power requirements for 5G, support enterprises in deploying private 5G networks, and offer cost-effective solutions for Fixed Wireless Access.”

Arctic Semiconductor founder and CEO Vahid Toosi said: “Our solutions are architected to be able to easily integrate with performance- and cost-optimised, industry-leading components. For this solution we collaborated with key industry leaders Skyworks and Synergy to bring this platform to market and enable 5G deployment for private networks.

“Our family of transceiver products provides the best RF performance in terms of noise and linearity with the lowest power solution that meets and exceeds all the 5G performance requirements in a cost-effective manner. We truly believe this will kick start a 5G private network movement.”