Transmisson Hub and Terminals for Point to Multipoint W-band TWEETHER System

The European Commission Horizon 2020 TWEETHER project will conclude the activity on September 2018 with the release of one transmission hub and three network terminal equipment for enabling the first W-band, 92 - 95 GHz, point to multipoint system, for high capacity backhaul and fixed access. The ambition of the project is to develop the European technology for a breakthrough in millimeter wave wireless networks, by introducing the use of traveling wave tubes to achieve the required transmission power for covering, by low-gain antennas, wide area sectors with radius longer than 1 km. The lack of transmission power has so far prevented the use of point to multipoint distribution at millimeter waves. At W-band, the 3 GHz bandwidth provides more than 10 Gbps capacity, and 4 Gbps/km(2) area capacity for small cells backhaul, with flexible allocation of the base stations and low total cost of operation. The TWEETHER system is also designed to provide high throughput fixed access. This paper will describe the latest results and the technological advancements the project generated, bringing Europe at the state of the art for point to multipoint millimeter wave wireless networks.