Ericsson, Qualcomm (News - Alert), and nine of the world’s largest cellular network operators have come together to demonstrate NSA 5G NR-compliant multivendor interoperability. This effort was part of a move to ready this technology for commercial launch starting in 2019.
Non-Standalone 5G New Radio is a global 3GPP standard. It enables network operators to use their existing LTE (News - Alert) radios and evolved packet core networks to support certain 5G use cases.
Channel codecs; dynamic, slot-based frame structure, massive MIMO, mobile millimeter wave, and waveform are key characteristics of 5G NR. Channel codecs are able to support large data blocks, very high peak rates, and Polar codes for reliable control channels. The frame structure also contributes to high peak rate and reliability, and supports low latency use cases as well. Massive MIMO allows for better data rates and spectral efficiency. Mobile mmWave delivers adaptive beamforming and beam tracking to maximize capacity in mobile environments. And by waveform 3GPP is referring to OFDM, which can also help support low latency services and wideband operation.
The testing leveraged 3.5GHz and 28GHz band spectrum. They took plan at the Ericsson Lab in Kista, Sweden, and a Qualcomm lab in New Jersey. And they also involved AT&T, NTT DOCOMO, Orangle, SK Telecom (News - Alert), Sprint, Telstra, T-Mobile US, Verizon, and Vodafone.
“This first multi-vendor interoperability test of 5G within days of the completion of the 3GPP standard paves the way for Vodafone (News - Alert) to trial commercial grade equipment in the coming year,” said Luke Ibbetson, Vodafone’s Head of Group R&D. “5G has the potential to provide up to a ten-fold improvement in cost efficiency to help us meet the growing demand for mobile data from Vodafone customers. The capabilities delivered by 5G will also help create the Gigabit societies of the future.”
Edited by
Mandi Nowitz
