Nokia starts production of next-gen 5G equipment at Chennai factory

Nokia announced that it has begun the production of next generation 5G equipment at its manufacturing site in Chennai. Nokia was the first to manufacture the 5G New Radio in India, and it is now producing the cutting-edge Nokia AirScale massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (mMIMO) solution. The equipment is already being exported to many countries which are in advanced stages of 5G deployment.

Nokia has invested over Rs 600 crore since 2008 in developing a best-in-class manufacturing facility which is spread over 1.4 lakh square meters. The factory has manufactured more than 5 million telecom network equipment units over the years. The factory was the first to deploy India’s first ‘real-world’ application of Industry 4.0, including AR/VR, automation and analytics, to enhance operational efficiency and productivity.

Sanjay Malik, senior VP and head of India market, at Nokia, said: “Our Chennai factory has emerged as a benchmark of India’s manufacturing capabilities, bringing an entire range of telecom technology to operators in India and the rest of the world. From being the first to manufacture 5G NR in India to producing mMIMO, it demonstrates our innovative manufacturing capabilities and our belief in India’s skill and talent to produce the best-in-class equipment. This will enable us to support Indian operators as they prepare to launch 5G.”

Nokia is now manufacturing mMIMO based 5G products with the latest 64-Transmit/64-Receive (64T64R) configuration. Massive MIMO is a key element of 5G technology that delivers high capacity, especially in densely populated locations. It brings together antennas at the transmitter and receiver to ensure improved speed and spectrum efficiency.

Extensive testing examined eleven different pre-defined traffic load scenarios that measured the energy consumed per Mbps based on the traffic load distribution. The results highlighted that 5G RAN technology is significantly more efficient than legacy technologies when it comes to energy consumption per data traffic capacity with several hardware and software features that help to save energy. The study, which utilised Nokia’s AirScale portfolio, including AirScale base stations and AirScale massive MIMO active antenna solutions, combined actual on-site base station energy consumption readings in different traffic load scenarios, ranging from zero percent to 100%, as well as remote monitoring of actual power consumption through the network management systems.