Long distance and high bandwidth wireless link tests for a 39 GHz to 28 GHz 5G low-cost repeater

This paper presents a low-cost millimeter-wave repeater for range extension in a 5G fixed wireless access system. It simply converts the wireless fronthaul signals in the 39 GHz band to the wireless access signals in the 28 GHz band without any base-band signal processing. Initial outdoor over-the-air tests with a simplified setup proved that a sufficient linearity can easily be achieved even over long fronthaul link length. Moreover, high bandwidth measurements with multi-carrier 5GTF pre-5G test signals demonstrated excellent EVM values with high signal-to-noise ratios enabling the required high data rates.