Sweden’s Ericsson and the US Power-Light Technologies have partnered on “the first fully wireless 5G base station,” according to the companies. Mobile World Live reported that the companies demoed the proof-of-concept in Seattle, WA, aiming to “enhance the speed and flexibility of network deployment in diverse environments” for RAN sites.
“The ability to safely transfer power across distances without having to be connected to the power grid eliminates one of the big obstacles we have when building new cell sites,” commented Kevin Zvokel, head of networks at Ericsson North America.
During the demo, powering the base station without connecting to a power grid involved optical beaming lasers. The process converted electricity into high-intensity light which was then “captured and transformed” to electricity at the radio base station, reported Mobile World Live.
The wireless base station was not connected to a power source during the demo. The base station remained powerless until it joined wirelessly “over the air” through a laser beam. The power was distributed to an Ericsson 5G mmWave base station as PowerLight’s laser technology transmitted 480 watts of electricity across nearly 1,000 feet through the air.
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