Verana Networks names Verizon as investor and starts mmWave trial
Summary
Verana Networks, a mmWave small cells start-up that TMN covered last year, has announced details of a new trial with Verizon, and revealed for the first time that Verizon has been a strategic investor in the start-up.Verana will be carrying out field trials of Veranas mmWave small cells, deployed to support Integrated Access and Backhaul. To work well, it alsoo requires a decent amount of spectrum, which is not a problem at mmWave bandwidths.IAB is designed as a solution where fibre is limited. Our innovation lies in building a multi-hop IAB system that preserves network capacity, minimises latency, and maximises mmWave coverage. Among other things, we have built an IAB-optimized 5G small cell (the Verana Mesh Radio) that provides 360-degree horizontal coverage and not only implements, in software, the DU function, but also a 5G UE (as the wireless backhaul client).Millimeter wave spectrum is abundant and inexpensive but providing 5G coverage using this spectrum is cost-prohibitive today, said Vedat Eyuboglu, CEO, and co-founder of Verana Networks. We look forward to trialing it to enhance the reach of our 5G Ultra Wideband network.Verana s solution is a vRAN deployment, and it also says that its cells are O-RAN compliant.