5G Boosts Wireless Infrastructure coaxial connectors Market

Nowadays, coaxial connectors are still popular even facing the impact of massive MIMO antenna systems. The infrastructure market has transformed from N type connector to 7/16 DIN to 4.3/10 DIN (or 4.3-10) to NEX10 and 2.2/5 (or 2.2-5) coaxial connectors. Due to the size limitations of the base station antenna coaxial rf connector. We need to design smaller sma connector.

Currently, we tend to shrink 2.2/5 and NEX10. But a new solution comes from Telegartner, the 1.5/3.5 (or 1.5-3.5) connector, which is only 25 percent size of 4.3/10 DIN connectors. The footprint is based on the SMA form factor of a 12.7 mm square footprint for a flange mount. These connectors are targeted for small cell applications supporting up to 1/4- inch corrugated coaxial cables. Smaller is better. However, the maximum for coaxial connectors is four transmit and four receive (4T4R).

Because of the long-existing 4G services, port counts continue to increase sma connector for passive antennas. There are typically five frequency bands for the U.S. market (600, 700, 800, 1900 and 2100 MHz) and seven frequency bands for mobile networks in Europe and the rest of the world (700, 800, 900, 1500, 1800, 2100 and 2700 MHz), each of which has a separate RRU. The port count in each frequency band increases as the MIMO order has increased coaxial connectors are essential when supporting a fully-loaded-seven-band-passive- -antenna-array coaxial rf connector..

The advent of 5G requires mobile operators to integrate all legacy 2G/3G/4G services onto a sma connector to make room for the new 5G NR antennas. In many countries, TDD frequency bands are available except for FDD frequency bands. Although the NEX10 and 2.2-5 connectors are available in a single port, we better use the connector as a multi-port cluster. The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance recently recommended the Hua Wei Technologies MQ4/MQ5 cluster connector to support TDD 8T8R 5G RRU and antenna configurations. There remains one unresolved issue according to coaxial connectors that it only covers the TDD mode, not FDD.

The following trends over sma connector will drive cluster connectors in Infrastructure RF Connector Market:

• Emergence and adoption of FDD 8 × 8 MIMO RRU technology sma connector for mid-band (1800 to 2700 MHz) frequencies.
• Use of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum in the United States, supporting 4 × 4 MIMO FDD.
• Adoption of high port count (>20) dual-mode, multi-band FDD/TDD antennas.
• Adoption of single- and dual-band TDD 5G NR 8 × 8 MIMO beamforming antennas.
• Migration from 2 × 2 MIMO (2T2R) RRUs to 4 × 4 MIMO (4T4R) RRUs supporting coaxial rf connector..

The coaxial connectors, whether single connectors or multiport clusters will thrive. While the crossover point for unit shipments of the sma connector, 4.3/10 DIN connector compared to the legacy 7/16 DIN connectors will eventually occur, we believe that RF connector volumes will soar up in following years