START DATE: 1st January, 2015

DURATION: 36 Months

EU FUNDING: 3,333 MEuro (3.333.723,00 EUR)

REFERENCE: 644678

Issue 4, November 2017

TWEETHER.euwww.TWEETHER.eu

TWEETHER is a European research initiative, funded under Horizon 2020, that bringstogether world-leading European industries and academic institutions acrossEurope to set a milestone in the millimeter wave technology with the realization ofthe first W-band (92-95GHz) point to multipoint wireless system for distribution ofhigh speed internet everywhere.

Key technologies under development include novel wide band W‐band TravelingWave Tube (TWT) amplifiers capable to provide an unprecedented level outputpower not possible by solid state devices, to distribute millimeter wave signals by alow gain antenna in a wide area.

TWEETHER is on the third year of the project and through this newsletter, we bringyou updates about the progress of the TWEETHER project and future activities.

TWEETHER will be concluded by field trial at Universidad Politécnica of Valencia inApril 2018.

Welcome to the fourth edition of the TWEETHER newsletter!

W

Project Coordinator Claudio PaoloniLancaster Universityc.paoloni@lancaster.ac.uk

Project Manager Mary English, Lancaster Universitym.english@lancaster.ac.uk

Visit us on www.tweether.eu @h2020tweether

www.TWEETHER.euPag 2

Issue 4, November 2017

TWEETHER W-band Traveling Wave Tube

TWT beam tester at Thales Electron Device laboratory

Pyramidal horn Antenna

The Traveling Wave Tube is the enabling device ofthe TWEETHER system.The fabrication includes two main phases:

» the correct generation of the electron beam

» the assembly of the full TWT with theinteraction structure.

The electron beam is tested by the beam tester(figure) that is a tube similar to the final TWT butwith the interaction structure replaced by acylindrical channel. The purpose of the beamtester is to verify that the electron beam and themagnetic focussing systems are correctlydesigned, to calibrate the beam behaviour for themaximum beam transmission and to evaluate thecorrect functioning of the beam optics.

» The electron beam has already demonstrated2500 hours of continuous functioning.

» The fabrication of the interaction structure isalmost completed.

» The fabricated TWT is expected by the nextmonths.

TWEETHER AntennaThe sectorial antenna for the Transmission Hub is apyramidal horn and it has been designed, fabricated andtested with the following specifications::

» Frequency band 92 – 95 GHz

» Gain. 19 dBi

» Aperture. 45º

» Flange WR10

TWEETHER LO Rejection Filter

An iris-coupled waveguide filterwas designed, fabricated andtested to reject (77dB) the LocalOscillator leaks.

LO rejection filter

www.TWEETHER.euPag 3

Issue 4, November 2017

TWEETHER W-band Chipset

The W-band Chipset is based on a GaAsMMIC chip set with 100nm gate length.It includes:

» 8X-multiplier» Power Amplifier» Low Noise Amplifier» Up Converters» Down Converter

A X-band Synthesizer with carrier recoveryhas been designed for the radio

TWEETHER Transmission Hub and Terminal

H 400 x W 220 x D 160 mm

H 250 x W 150 x D 160 mm

The compact dimensions of theTransmission Hub and the Terminalmakes the PmP at W-band highlycompetitive to any equivalent systems,e.g. E-band Point to Point.

Each Transmission Hub can serve up to10 terminals in a 1km range sector withaperture angle up to 90º.

Frequency reuse 1/2 prevent anyinterference risks.

Site leasing will be much cheaper thanfor a cluster of tens of 20/30 cmantennas for Point to Point Links.

Transmission Hub

Terminal

Low noise amplifier

Power amplifier

Up-converter Down converter

www.TWEETHER.euPag 4

Issue 4, November 2017

TWEETHER Field Trial

Field Trial objectives

Demonstrate the feasibility of TWEETHER systemand assess its performance during a significantperiod of time.

Collect the most critical Key Parameter Indicatorsof the wireless links (RSSI, CNR, MCS level,Throughput, Frame Loss, Delay and Jitter).

Provide a valuable input for Dissemination,Exploitation and Standardization activities

Line-of-sight availability

Architecture

Selected Sites within UPVLC campus (Valencia, Spain)

The Field Trial Deployment will take place in Valencia (Spain) in the first months of 2018. It will consist of aTransmission Hub (TH) equipped with the novel W-band TWT amplifier developed in the project and threeNetwork Terminal Equipment (NTE) at different distances from the TH: 300m, 500m and 1100m. This set up willconstitute the first Point-to-Multipoint wireless distribution network deployed in W-band. It will be followed bya measurement campaign during which the performances of the network will be assessed.

Each of the links TH-NTEx will have a dedicated 80MHz TDMA channel.

The modulation level targeted in downlink is 64QAM-5/6 with 99,97% availability, featuring around 250Mbps ofaggregated traffic, while 64QAM-3/4 modulation is expected in uplink.

Around 1 Gbps aggregated over the 3 links is expected as a maximum throughput of the Transmission Hub inthis Field Trial.

Expected performances

www.TWEETHER.euPag 5

Issue 4, November 2017

mmMAGIC mm-Wave based Mobile Radio Access Network for 5G Integrated Communications

Claudio Paoloni chaired with Valerio Frascolla Intel, Germany, mm-MAGIC, the Workshop onMillimetre-Wave Electronics for High Capacity Wireless Networks at the 46th European MicrowaveWeek (EuMW 2016). The workshop was rated as one of the most successful of the EUMW with apeak of 60 participants.

» Viktor Krozer (Goethe University of Frankfurt) presented “MMIC Chip-Set Development forBroadband W-band Receivers and Transmitters” within the Workshop on Millimetre-WaveElectronics for High Capacity Wireless Networks

» Claudio Paoloni (Lancaster University presented “TWEETHER - W-band High Capacity WirelessNetworks”

iBROW (Innovative ultra-BROadband ubiquitous Wireless communications through terahertztransceivers)

Claudio Paoloni invited to present TWEETHER Traveling wave tube based W-band wireless networkswith high data rate distribution, spectrum and energy efficiencyto IBROW30M workshop 2017, 22nd June 2017

5G-MiEdge (Millimeter-wave Edge cloud as an enabler for 5G ecosystem)

Claudio Paoloni chaired the special session “Towards 300 GHz wireless networks” jointly with ValerioFrascolla Intel, Germany, 5G-MiEdge, at the 26th European Conference on Networks andCommunications (EuCNC 2017)

» Claudio Paoloni presented the paper “Point to Multipoint at Millimetre Waves Above 90 GHz“

Collaborations with other H2020 Projects

Standardization

W-band Point to Multipoint is a novelty in the millimetre wave backhaul scenario so far dominated byPoint to Point at E-band, commercially available, and some Point-to-Point tests at D-band.

The standardization of the W-band Point to Multipoint is urgent to enable a cost effective distributionof high data rate in urban and suburban areas with low footprint and high deployment flexibility.

TWEETHER is making a case to ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) on millimetre WaveTransmission (mWT). T

TheTWEETHER project, including, technology, economy, advancements and plan, was presented atthe 8th Plenary meeting of the ETSI in June.

The measurements of the TWT amplifier, and results from the field trial of W-band Point toMultipoint backhaul network infrastructure will demonstrate the outstanding breakthrough of theTWEETHER system and the need of a standardisation to exploit the W-band for PmP distribution.

www.TWEETHER.euPag 6

Issue 4, November 2017

TWEETHER at EUCNC 2017, the European Conference on Networks and Communications

EUCNC 2017 is a global event that brings together the leading European academics and therepresentatives from major ICT organisations. It also has a unique feature of presenting thesignificant scientific results of the vast EU funded programmes.

TWEETHER was present with a booth, wherevisitors could inspect by microscope several piecesof W-band technology such as the GaAs chipset,the LO rejection filter and a W-band transition forthe motherboard. Real dimension model of bothTerminal and Transmission Hub where shown.

The Special Session 2 “SPS2: Toward 300 GHzwireless networks, challenges and opportunities”was chaired by Claudio Paoloni who gave the talk“Point to Multipoint at Millimetre Waves Above 90GHz”. Also, Claudio Paoloni presented “TWEETHER:W-band Point to Multipoint, an economy model”atworkshop 6 “Business models and techno-economic analysis for 5G networks”.

» OMMIC hosted TWEETHER at the exhibition of European Microwave Week (EUMW 2017) at thestand 162.

» Claudio Paoloni presented the paper "TWEETHER Future Generation W-band Backhaul and AccessNetwork Technology“ was presented at the 26th European Conference on Networks andCommunications (EuCNC 2017).

» Frédéric André, Thales Electron Devices, presented the paper "Fabrication of W-band TWT for 5Gsmall cells backhaul“at the 18th International Vacuum Electronics Conference (IVEC 2017).London,UK

» Claudio Paoloni presented the paper “Folded wave guide TWT for 92 – 95 GHz band outdoorwireless frontend” at the workshop on Microwave Technology and Techniques (MTT) 2017,ESA/ESTEC, The Netherland.

» Xavier Begaud, Telecom Paristech, presented the paper “Millimeter Wave Antennas for BackhaulNetworks” at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2017), Paris, France

» Claudio Paoloni was invited to present the paper “TWEETHER project for W-band wirelessnetworks” at the 9th IEEE UK-Europe-China Workshop on mm-Waves and THz Technologies(UCMMT2016), Beijing, China

» Claudio Paoloni was invited to give the talk “Tweether 95GHz pt to mpt H2020 project” at UKSpectrum Policy Forum - Cluster 2: Access Mechanisms for mmWave, London, 2017

Conferences and events