The future is Active Antenna

Life is about experiences. Whether we’re streaming our favourite band on stage, face-timing our friends half a world away or uploading the winning goal to our social media profiles, we rely upon the stability and efficiency of the network.

However, the massive concentration of users at public events can overwhelm networks and jeopardise those experiences. We need something better. We need Active Antenna.

Active Antenna uses Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology - a wireless network that enables the transmitting and receiving of multiple data signals simultaneously over the same radio channel. It’s also a key enabler and foundational component of 5G.

As data usage continues to increase by 60 per cent each year , governments and businesses will need to adopt a stronger, more effective network. Active Antenna is the best solution to meet the growing global data overload.

What can Active Antenna do?

The advantage of Active Antenna over regular networks is its unique ability to multiply the capacity of a wireless connection without the need for more spectrum. These considerable capacity improvements could potentially yield a 50-fold increase soon.

It’ll also be more responsive to those devices transmitting in higher frequency bands, with improved coverage (this is especially important for acquiring good signal indoors).

Active Antenna’s ability to accommodate multiple users with multiple devices at once within a condensed area is unparalleled. With fast data rates and incredibly consistent performance, it has become the perfect technology to compliment the incoming 5G era.

In an effort to showcase the potential of Active Antenna in a real-life scenario, Vodafone teamed up with Huawei in Australia to combine a frequency spectrum with a 5G active antenna unit. It hit transfer speeds of 717Mbps across eight devices.

Why do we need Active Antenna?

The exponential expansion of IoT devices across the globe has forced governments and enterprises to innovate existing networks. It’s not just the amount of people in one place at any given time, but the number of devices each user has that are trying to connect.

Active Antenna is also inextricably tied to 5G, which specifies much higher capacity for networks to cope and with all the devices.

World Pride Madrid 2017 became a perfect template upon which to base future smart cities, as millions converged upon the city for four days of sporting events, concerts and social gatherings.

The culmination of the event was a million people converging on the Plaza Del Rey, uploading photos and videos, and streaming live all at the same time.

Before the event, the local government enlisted Vodafone to install nine new Active Antenna sites around the Plaza del Ray to build additional capacity.

The system performed incredibly well, with 3x the amount of usual capacity and 10,000 simultaneous connections on each antenna in each cell. Its resounding success means it has become a permanent installation.