Around the end of 2016, Huawei offers the world’s first commercial LTE router B5328 with 4 × 4 MIMO antenna technology. The B5328 LTE Router offers significantly higher data rates in a correspondingly equipped network than devices with 2 × 2 MIMO antenna technology. The Huawei B5328 is the successor to the popular Huawei E5186 LTE Router. In the free trade, the Huawei B5328 is currently not available; however, interested network operators and service providers can order the device on request and thus make available to their customers.
Based on the GCT’s GDM7243Q, the only LTE-A chip commercially available that offers 4×4 MIMO capability, enables Huawei B5328 LTE CPE with higher data rates and throughput while using limited bandwidth (“double speed” with the same limited bandwidth), which is a scarce commodity for network operators.
By integrating the receiver with four antennas and equipping the base station with four transmitters, mobile operators can maximize the use of their spectrum. Huawei B5328 is the successor to Huawei E5186 4G LTE Router. With GDM7243Q chipset, Huawei B5328 cpedelivers LTE Category 5/6/7 throughputs with double speeds enabled by 4X4 MIMO technology, and supports Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and eMBMS (LTE broadcast) as well as other advanced features.
The Huawei B5328 was already introduced in December 2015, but so far only supplied to very few operators, as most LTE networks currently set to 2 × 2 MIMO antenna technology and the B5328 router has no appreciable advantage in such networks to the predecessor model Huawei E5186 Router. You can buy the B5328 for example in Tunisia with the provider mobilis.
Some European network operators have already carried out tests with the Huawei B5328, for example the Czech Vodafone. Vodafone has achieved test with 4 × 4 MIMO antenna technology and Carrier Aggregation around 300 Mbit/s in the downlink.
The Huawei B5328 has no telephone function in the currently available version B5328-155 and has only a single RJ45 Ethernet connection on the back. The WLAN module works only on 2.4 GHz (WiFi 802.11 b/g/n), the exact speed I could not find unfortunately. Basically, the B5328 appears not to be a high-end router in the face of quite meager facilities, while the previous Huawei E5186 LTE CPE had a much greater variety of functions (Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 4x Gigabit Ethernet).
The Huawei B5328 LTE router will also come to the market in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. As we know, the China Mobile will also use this device for the upgraded LTE-Advanced TD-LTE network. From today’s point of view, there is not much to be in favor, as network operators rely on 2 × 2 MIMO antenna technology, higher modulation (256QAM) and frequency bundling to increase the speeds in their LTE networks. Currently, the Huawei E5186 is still dominating the market for 2 X 2 MIMO LTE networks.