Kumu Networks has developed a means of significantly reducing latency in 5G networks that has the result of also improving throughput. It does this by allowing signals to be transmitted and received on the same or near adjacent channel without self-interference. Self-interference happens when the signal being transmitted by a radio blocks a signal being received at the same time.
What Kumu Networks has done is develop a way to cancel out the interference from its own transmitter, so that it doesn’t block reception. Using a technique first described by author Arthur C. Clarke in his 1950 short story, “Silence Please” Kumu cancels out interference by reproducing a signal out of phase, so that it cancels out any interference. The result is that the radio’s receiver circuitry doesn’t receive the interference at all.
This technique has been used to a limited extent in audio technology, but Kumu has taken it to radio to solve a similar problem.
Self Interference
In a wireless environment, this self-interference can cause latency, because the radio has to slow down to wait while it receives a signal. The reason it must wait is because its transmitted signal is interfering with reception. By cancelling that interference, the radio can transmit and receive at the same time.
“Latency effectively eliminates throughput,” explained Kumu CEO David Cutrer. “If we’ve got great throughput, we can go a gigabit per second, but if you got high latency, your actual throughput is maybe half last, or maybe a third of that.”
