JMA Wireless and other leading American wireless technology companies successfully demonstrated the advanced 5G private network that will launch a smart warehouse at the Marine Corps Logistics Base at Albany, Ga., as part of the Department of Defense (DoD) 5G-to-Next G Initiative overseen by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense.
The Federated Wireless-led solution, consisting of JMA, Cisco, Vectrus, Capstone Partners and Perspecta Labs, is an all-American team that has utilized a software-centric design to go from contract award to working system in less than half-a-year, well over six months ahead of other 5G programs using traditional, custom hardware solutions.
"The U.S. Armed Forces deserve the world’s most advanced 5G solution, and it is only appropriate that this sophisticated software and hardware comes from a US company providing US developed technology, that is manufactured in the US,” said John Mezzalingua, CEO of JMA Wireless. “Advancing the U.S. Military’s communications capabilities is an urgent priority for our country, and we consider it a high honor that our advanced software solution, XRAN, has accelerated the DOD’s 5G deployment timeline.”
At the demonstration, JMA’s XRAN virtual radio access network (vRAN) software provided 1.5 Gbps download speeds and sub-15 millisecond latency—critical 5G benchmarks that enable new logistics applications to increase operational efficiency and inventory accuracy. XRAN’s flexibility was also on full display with its ability to use the DOD’s mid-band and mmWave spectrum, resulting in multiple industry firsts at the demo: The first 5G use of the military’s 37 GHz mmWave spectrum and the first use of the CBRS mid-band spectrum as an anchor band for mmWave.
With XRAN, the Marine Corps Logistics Base is getting the benefit of many years of development and field hardening. A 100 percent software solution that operates on a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) server, XRAN replaces racks of expensive custom hardware, eliminates hardware supply chain risk and provides form-factor flexibility with ORAN compliance, while achieving performance levels that match the industry’s most advanced hardware solutions.
The entire Marine Corps 5G system takes up less than one rack of equipment. The demonstration validated a broad range of COTS 5G devices, gateways and endpoints, including those for person-to-person, machine-to-machine and person-to-machine applications. The diversity of endpoints aligns with those anticipated for logistics and operational modernization initiatives for both government and civilian use cases.