HFCL Managing Director Mahendra Nahata.

In 2003, Mr. Nahata was awarded “Telecom Man of the Millennium” by Voice & Data. He was the President of the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA), Co-Chairman of the Telecom Committee of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Chairman – Telecom Committee of PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Akrita Reyar: Tell us something about the concept of 5G Lab-as-a-Service and how will it work, along with the benefits it will bring.

Mahendra Nahata: 5G Lab-as-a-Service is a state of art offering by HFCL that enables the entire technology ecosystem in India and globally – including telecom operators, network equipment providers, system integrators, device manufacturers, startups and academia. Telecom operators are adopting multi-vendor networks based on cloud-native technologies for the faster and cost-effective rollout of 5G services and improved user experience. There is a massive need to integrate multi-vendor, multi-technology systems and further validate performance. The 5G Lab-as-a-Service will accelerate the implementation of 5G solutions and services, optimize disaggregated components such as hardware, software, cloud and network functions and increase innovations for the seamless deployment of 5G networks.

Along with its next-gen high-tech products and solutions, HFCL’s 5G Lab-as-a-Service also offers the expertise of highly experienced and qualified network engineers, operations consultants, software application, infrastructure developers, and test and integration personnel to leverage 5G and Edge Compute solutions. The offering acts as an automated testbed for players from different realms to develop other 5G use cases and innovations. It provides a sandbox for the rapid prototyping of new operational new use cases in sectors like manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and retail. It will further help the efficient rollout of rural mobile broadband in the country.

Akrita Reyar: Another interesting product from HFCL is the 5G Macro radio units. How do these enable 5G network roll out in cities?

Mahendra Nahata: Our 5G 8T8R Macro Radio Unit (RU) is the first product from HFCL’s 5G product family. It is a next-generation Radio Unit with a compact form factor, improved energy efficiency, and supports digital beamforming and zero-touch provisioning. HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro Radio Unit combines the power of vRAN based on open standards. Unlike traditional RAN, where all components of RAN must come from the same vendor, HFCL’s 5G 8T8R Macro RU can integrate with any vendor’s virtual baseband unit (vBBU) compliant with O-RAN fronthaul specification.

It will aid in accelerating the 5G network rollout, as operators can provide better 5G coverage and address capacity requirements in urban, suburban and rural areas. It is modular in design and can be easily customized to support any Sub-6 GHz frequency band to address the global markets.

Akrita Reyar: You have partnered with Qualcomm to launch the world’s first open-source Wi-Fi 7 access points – how does it aim to do improve speed and efficiency?

Mahendra Nahata: HFCL becomes the first OEM in the world to launch open-source Wi-Fi 7 Access Point. It is a revolutionary Wi-Fi technology designed to deliver Extremely High Throughput (EHT), higher spectral efficiency, better interference mitigation, and Real-Time Applications (RTA) support. Wi-Fi 7 uses faster connections with 320MHz and 4kQAM, Multiple connections with Multi-Link operation and Adaptive Connections for adaptive interference puncturing to deliver an enhanced user experience while offering better power efficiency. The Wi-Fi 7 APs support peak data rates of over 10 Gbps and offers latency under 2 ms compared to 5 Gbps and 10 ms of current Wi-Fi 6 products. Wi-Fi 7 is an improved version of all previous Wi-Fi standards, a significant technological leap, offering an immersive experience to its users and ushering the world towards a digitally more robust path.

Akrita Reyar: HFCL has also done R&D for industrial applications like the Internet of Things (IoT) and IIoT applications, Cloud/Edge Computing etc. Please elaborate.

Mahendra Nahata: For HFCL, innovation and R&D are the backbones of developing a range of futuristic product portfolios. We are investing heavily to meet the accelerated rate of fiberization and 5G products demand and tap opportunities in technology, defence and railway space. HFCL’s in-house R&D Centres located at Gurgaon and Bengaluru are in partnership with engineering companies like Wipro along with other R&D collaborators at different locations in India and abroad to innovate a futuristic range of technology products and solutions. HFCL has developed indigenous capabilities to provide premium quality Optical Fiber and Optical Fiber Cables, next-generation telecom products, including 5G Radio Products, 5G Transport Products, Wi-Fi 7 APs, Unlicensed Band Radios, Switches, Routers and Network Services.

Akrita Reyar: Please talk about future plans of the company and how its efforts will be linked with the 5G deployment.

Mahendra Nahata: We are currently working towards bolstering our 5G portfolio further. Our R&D-backed products and global collaborations will help us make the best of what the 5G space offers. We have recently agreed with Qualcomm Technologies Inc. for HFCL’s design and development of 5G Outdoor Small Cell products. As operators start rolling out 5G networks in India, they need outdoor small cells to complement their macro networks for a seamless 5G experience. Qualcomm Technologies’ innovative and highly integrated 5G small cell platform enables us to quickly develop a portfolio of small cell products for both sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave to address India and global markets.