Marvell and Analog Devices Announce 5G Massive MIMO Radio Unit Solutions

Marvell and Analog Devices announced an advanced 4G/5G radio unit (RU) design that supports high antenna counts and multi-gigabit per second throughput for both integrated RAN and Open RAN deployments. Leveraging the companies’ complementary radio silicon and RU software suite, the next-generation massive MIMO RU design that results from this collaboration will deliver power, weight and performance improvements inherent with ASIC solutions for both integrated RAN and Open RAN deployments.

As 5G deployments continue to ramp, network operators are increasingly seeking higher capacity RU systems to deliver the performance expected by their customers. The ADI-Marvell solution will enable a growing number of OEMs to bring competitive solutions to the market, enabling additional capacity for existing radio sites. With an ongoing shift toward Open RAN, the newly launched solutions will provide native support for O-RAN split 7.2x functionality.

The 5G massive MIMO RU solutions will incorporate ADI’s next-generation transceiver technology, including an advanced, programmable digital front-end. Marvell is providing its baseband silicon, which offers beamforming and a lower L1 software supporting O-RAN split 7.2. The solutions provide complete system-level hardware reference designs developed in collaboration with Benetel, a leading innovator in RU solutions. Initial prototypes are expected in latter half of 2021.

More info in original Press Release.