Increasing antenna ports without increasing dimensions.
Huawei has granted patent licenses for MQ4/MQ5 RF cluster connectors to multiple connector manufacturers.
This will facilitate the large-scale commercial adoption of standard RF cluster connectors as well as promote the development of miniaturised and highly integrated base station antennas and RF devices.
An RF cluster connector incorporates multiple RF ports in one connector, enabling antennas to provide more ports without the need to increase dimensions.
As mobile networks continue to advance, operators have an increasing demand for highly integrated antennas. This has led to a substantial growth in the number of ports on antennas and RF devices.
For example, one antenna that supports multi-band FDD 4T4R and LTE TDD/5G NR 8T8R likely has 20 to 30 ports.
While smaller antennas are easier to deploy, the smaller size makes it difficult to increase the number of antenna ports. Cluster RF connectors represent the development trend in the industry, breaking the bottleneck of the increase of antenna ports.
To meet this challenge, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance launched a cluster connector initiative to standardise RF cluster connectors for 5G deployment, which will subsequently facilitate development of unified cluster connectors in the industry and ensure consistency in connectors on networks.
On August 27, 2019, the NGMN Alliance recommended Huawei’s MQ4/MQ5 cluster RF connectors as the industry standard for early 5G deployment.
This recommendation was made based on a comprehensive analysis of various factors, including maturity, commercial readiness, electrical performance, mechanical performance, and deployment costs.
