Movandi was founded in 2016 by former Broadcom executives to solve the propagation challenges associated with deploying 5G in higher millimeter wave bands. If you have been paying attention, this is a big problem, because the true vision of 5G can only be realized when the mid-to-high frequency bands are widespread. Movandi focuses on a complete set of solutions, including chips, software and systems, including radio frequency (RF) chips, integrated antenna modules, algorithms and reference platforms.
The company made several announcements at the Mobile World Congress in Los Angeles (MWCLA) this week, and I want to share my findings.
Silicon and antenna enhancement
From a silicon and antenna perspective, Movandi introduced three enhancements that are worthy of further study. The first center is a new chipset that supports wireless backhaul, 5G new radio unlicensed spectrum, and fixed wireless access (FWA) applications. Movandi 60 GHz MV6055 covers the entire unlicensed frequency band between 57 and 71 GHz, and integrates 16-channel beamforming with up-conversion and down-conversion functions in one form factor. From my point of view, this feature is very important because it reduces the overall footprint and thus makes deployment more flexible. By pairing the new silicon with Movandi's MV3504 synthesizer and antenna, operators can also provide fiber-like speeds of more than 1.2 miles, which can significantly save costs compared to laying fiber. The company also announced the expansion of millimeter wave frequency support for its BeamXR smart repeater series. These silicon enhancements allow repeaters to operate in the 24/26 GHz, 28 GHz, and 39 GHz frequency bands, thereby opening up larger potential markets around the world.
High-performance 5G mmWave PAAM in CMOS for gNB
From an antenna perspective, Movandi announced a 5G millimeter wave phased array antenna module (PAAM) optimized for Open RAN deployment scenarios. As the Open RAN concept verification continues, Rakuten Japan and Dish Networks of the United States have carried out some direct greenfield deployments, and this solution can enable the company to win in future designs. The design incorporates improvements in RF power efficiency, cost, and number of antennas. Power consumption is one of the important factors affecting the operating cost structure of operators. Therefore, these superficial enhancements seem compelling.
Smarter and more efficient repeaters
By definition, repeaters will amplify signals, and millimeter-wave networks will need to be densified to expand propagation. At MWCLA, Movandi announced several enhancements to its 5G BeamXR series of repeaters. First of all, the company is now supporting solar energy, which should allow operators to install repeaters in areas with insufficient power access services with great flexibility. This green ability will undoubtedly change the rules of the game, especially in rural areas. Secondly, Mondavi plans to provide millimeter-wave indoor coverage through its repeater module below 6 GHz, which should be sampled in the second half of 2022. Considering the demand for transmission contention caused by sight and glass, indoor deployment is a huge challenge for millimeter waves, metal and gypsum board. Finally, Movandi partnered with Airfide Networks to support mesh networking for indoor and outdoor use cases. The solution essentially uses a cloud-native architecture to cluster 5G small cells and artificial intelligence software to dynamically determine the best signal propagation path. In my opinion, the aggregation of these new enhancements can prepare the company for future success.
This is the Movandi BeamXR Smart Repeater for Moving Vehicles discussed in the Sixth Five-Year Podcast video below:
BeamXR smart repeater for mobile vehicles
Millimeter wave is expected to release the superpower of 5G from the perspective of delay and throughput, but its propagation challenges in high and mid-range frequency bands are huge. I am very impressed with Movandi's end-to-end focus on solving these problems of fixed and mobile applications in a short period of time. I also found that what is very compelling is the company's platform cost structure relative to gNodeB, which is a 3GPP compatible 5G new radio base station implementation standard. At about half of the cost, Movandi not only undermined operating expense savings through power management enhancements, but also reduced operators' capital expenditures. Considering the need to use repeaters and small base stations for dense millimeter wave network deployment, the latter cannot be emphasized.
MWCLA is a huge display of the company's capabilities, and I believe Movandi can significantly influence the deployment of 5G millimeter wave networks worldwide. The company said its portfolio of 5G millimeter wave solutions can provide ten times the coverage area, while the cost is only 1/10 of competing alternatives. If these figures are true in the long run, I believe Movandi can be rewarded.
Note: This article was co-authored with Will Townsend, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
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