Spectrum is the resource carriers spend billions to acquire and billions more to deploy, so clearly there is value in using it efficiently. Several companies have patented technologies to increase spectral efficiency, and one of them recently raised a $20 million Series B round with the goal of hiring new talent to develop its private wireless business.
GenXComm is a technology startup created from research conducted at the University of Texas at Austin. Investors including Intel Capital, BMWi Ventures and Motive Communications are backing the company as it markets its solutions to carriers, with a particular focus on helping them deploy private networks.
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“We are able to do backhaul and access in the same frequency”, explained GenXComm co-founder and CTO Hardik Jain. “It is especially important for private cellular.”
Jain explained enterprises deploying private networks cannot afford to lay fiber to support all their backhaul needs. He said they save time and money by installing gateways near their existing fiber access points, and using GenXComm mesh nodes to fill in coverage gaps.
“It is similar to how we deploy Wi-Fi now,” said Jain, adding Wi-Fi mesh networks make sense because they can use both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrum, separating access from backhaul. Most private cellular networks use just one spectrum band, but Jain said GenXComm mesh nodes make sense for these networks because one band can serve two purposes.
The company uses photonics and other technologies to achieve interference cancellation, enabling one wireless channel to transmit and receive simultaneously.
Jain said most of GenXComm’s current customer engagements involve industrial use cases like warehouses, ports, factories, chemical plants and refineries. Down the road, he sees cars as potential hotspots or even as mesh nodes. And investor BMWi Ventures appears to be on board with the idea.
GenXComm’s hardware supports multiple spectrum bands, including CBRS. Jain said the startup has developed its own core network product and can use both Federated Wireless' and Google’s Spectrum Access Systems.
GenXComm is one of several companies working on technologies that can help carriers get more bang for their buck when it comes to spectrum. Kumu Networks is also working on interference cancellation technologies, and its target markets are cellular, Wi-Fi, cable and the military.
A different approach comes from Cohere Technologies, which uses software to solve the spectral efficiency challenge. Its Delay Doppler technology estimates and predicts channels, delivering what Cohere calls a Spectrum Multiplier solution that is hardware agnostic. Cohere CEO Ray Dolan has highlighted the opportunity in 5G industrial automation, suggesting he also sees opportunity in private wireless.