Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies are working with Vodafone to test 5G interoperability and conduct an over-the-air field trial based on 5G New Radio (NR) specifications being developed in 3GPP. The trial intends to drive the mobile ecosystem towards validation of 5G NR technologies, which will enable operators to test 3GPP standard compliant 5G NR infrastructure and devices at scale.
Taking place in the United Kingdom, the focus of the trial will showcase 5G NR technologies that utilise wide bandwidths to increase network capacity and achieve multi-gigabit per second data rates.
Applicable to both existing licensed bands and new bands in sub 6GHz, 5G will be important to meeting the increasing connectivity requirements for emerging consumer mobile broadband experiences such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Connected Cloud services.
Ulf Ewaldsson, senior vice president and chief strategy and technology officer, Ericsson, says, "5G will enable operators to provide new use cases in areas such as the Internet of Things, automation and big data, and the ability to build new revenue streams with radically new business models. To speed up commercialization of the global 3GPP 5G standard, we continuously work with leading operators and ecosystem players in 5G to enable global scale and drive the industry in one common direction."
The trial will utilize 5G system solutions and devices from Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies to demonstrate real world scenarios across a broad set of use cases and deployment situations.
Matt Grob, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., says, "The work between Qualcomm, Ericsson and Vodafone is just another example of how collaboration on impactful 5G NR trials between global industry leaders is pertinent to not only drive the technology forward, but to ensure timely commercial deployments of 5G technologies based on the 3GPP specification."
Matt Beal, director of technology, architecture and strategy, Vodafone, says, "The demonstration of the 5G standard in sub-6GHz bands is an important step forward in the development of 5G. Standardization of this technology will help deliver high performing and reliable 5G mobile networks with global coverage. A common standard also promises to deliver the economies of scale, which will help drive adoption of the technology in consumer devices and the internet of things."
The trial will make use of advanced 3GPP 5G NR technologies including Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technology, adaptive self-contained TDD, beamforming techniques, scalable OFDM-based waveforms to support wider bandwidths, advanced coding and modulation schemes, and a new flexible framework design.
The 3GPP 5G NR standard-based interoperability testing and trials will start in the second half of 2017, and will follow decisions of 3GPP Release 15 specification – the global 5G standard that will make use of both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave spectrum bands.
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