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White Paper Released on Beamforming Technologies Designed to Enhance 4G and 5G Network Capacities
[December 07, 2017]

White Paper Released on Beamforming Technologies Designed to Enhance 4G and 5G Network Capacities


A white paper contrasting the differences between the two leading beamforming technologies designed to meet growing capacity requirements for 4G and 5G networks was released today by Pivotal Commware.

Written by Eric J. Black, Ph.D., CTO of Pivotal Commware, the paper, titled "Holographic Beam Forming and MIMO," describes the benefits of electronic beamforming for 4G and 5G networks and compares multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) to Holographic Beam Forming™ (HBF (News - Alert)). Both technologies implement Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA).

"The wireless world is feverishly working to open a new degree of freedom - space - to meet the explosive growth in network capacity and performance," said Black. "4G LTE (News - Alert) is nearly at the theoretical limits of wireless resource utilization, while 5G will need advancements such as beamforming to meet its full potential. Beamforming technologies will be critical to both."

In the paper, Black wites that beamforming, combined with sub-microsecond beamsteering, will:



  • Accelerate small cell deployments by reducing installation and alignment expenses and overcoming aesthetic objections by blending antennas into building facades or around light poles
  • Introduce real self-organizing networks (SON) and alleviate the need for truck rolls
  • Provide personal cell coverage for 5G

However, Black contends that none of these benefits will materialize in the commercial market without using an architecture with a low "C-SWaP" - cost, size, weight and power. He concludes that Holographic Beam Forming using software defined antennas (SDAs) offers a substantially reduced C-SWaP compared to conventional phased arrays or MIMO systems, making it a viable option for commercial 4G and 5G networks.

The white paper is available for download here: https://pivotalcommware.com/technology/


About Pivotal Commware, Inc.

Pivotal Commware is bringing to market communications products based on Holographic Beam Forming technology. Incubated by Invention Science Fund, Pivotal Commware secured an initial funding round of $17 million in June 2017 with lead investments from The Thermo Companies and DIG Investment, along with those from Bill Gates (News - Alert), Lux Capital, the family office of Barry Sternlicht, and others. The company is privately held and headquartered in Bellevue, WA.


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