Ericsson on Thursday announced a new line of software-driven plug-ins designed speed network evolution and bring 5G concepts to today’s networks.
Head of Ericsson’s Radio business unit Arun Bansal said “5G will be driven by new use cases requiring higher performance” and said the new plug-ins will “enable the evolutionary steps that operators need to take as they develop networks to secure their 5G future.”
According to Ericsson, the plug-ins include support for a number of different 5G use cases, from mobile HD video to driverless transportation and haptic feedback-enabled drones. Ericsson said the plug-ins can be used to bridge the gap to 5G and improve operator’s existing mobile broadband, fixed wireless and Internet of Things (IoT) services.
Plug-in offerings include:
- Massive MIMO, which Ericsson said combines Single-User MIMO (SU-MIMO) and beamforming supported by advanced antennas with a large number of steerable ports to improve user experience and network coverage and capacity;
- Multi-User MIMO, which builds on Massive MIMO to transmit data to multiple user devices using the same time and frequency resources and coordinate beamforming. Like Massive MIMO, Multi-User MIMO provides a better user experience, enhances network capacity and coverage, and reduces interference;
- RAN Virtualization, which Ericsson said improves network efficiency and performance by allowing Virtual Network Functions (VNF) to be centralized on a common platform supporting both 4G and 5G;
- Intelligent Connectivity, which enables the network to robustly anchor and intelligently route data based on application requirements and network resource availability, increasing the combined data throughput of 4G and 5G resources; and
- Latency Reduction, which shortens access procedures and modifies the frame structure to enable instant network access and more frequent transmissions. Ericsson said the plug-in will reduce time-to-content while enabling real-time communications for key 5G applications such as smart vehicles.
Ericsson said the new plug-ins will be supported by the Ericsson Radio System. The company said 40 percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks.
Ericsson said the 5G plug-ins will become available for trials this year and will roll out for commercial networks in 2017.
Filed Under: IoT • IIoT • Internet of things • Industry 4.0, Wireless • 5G and more, Infrastructure