TIM (Telecom Italia) has teamed up with US mobile technology startup Kumu Networks to conduct what the partners described as the world’s first live test of “full duplex relay” technology. A test was first conducted in June at TIM's TILab in Turin with the subsequent live trial on the outskirts of the same city demonstrating the ability of the full duplex technology to double the transmission capacity of the network. Kumu’s pre-5G technology enables simultaneous in-band uplink and downlink communication by cancelling signal interference in real time to enhance spectral efficiency. In a statement, TIM said the technology is also applicable on existing 4G networks with the use of small cells in areas where there is no traditional backhaul solution available.
Other operators such as Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom and Telefonica are also testing the technology developed by Kumu, which recently announced that it had raised a further USD 25 million from backers including Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, Cisco and Swisscom.
