mmWave E-band fronthaul (also known as “fibre-in-the-air”) will enable high-throughput (100 Gbps), low-latency (<10 us) & high-density (1 M/km2) street level connectivity. The key enabler of fronthaul is link densification, first through last-mile link deployment followed by aggressive small-cell densification (every 300 m).
Existing E-band front-ends meet backhaul requirements, but are too expensive ($1k+), too big (10 x 10 cm) & power hungry (5 W) for fronthaul deployment.