Ericsson declares software driven 5G plug-ins

NEW DELHI: Ericsson, Swedish telecom technology provider declared its software driven 5G plug-ins, aimed at increasing adoption of 5G services. The plug-ins conduct flexible 5G to existing networks, while improving operators’ mobile, broadband, fixed wireless and its services.
Ericsson thinks about the 5G subscription uptake will commence in 2020, and is expected to be faster than for 4G.
“The development of 5G is being driven by new use cases that will impact both consumers and industries. New applications and use cases anticipated for 5G include safe, self-driving cars, remote controlled robots, haptic feedback-enabled drones and fixed wireless access – rivalling fiber capacity – for residential homes,” stated the company.
Ericsson is working with more than 20 best mobile operators all over the world on 5G networking and use cases, involving 5G field trials in 2016.
Ericsson’s 5G plug-ins are supported by radio system, and especially emphasized on the capabilities that operators can leverage within current networks to facilitate their evolution to 5G.
The 5G plug-ins involve:
Massive MIMO plug-in, which is a combination of Single-User MIMO (SU-MIMO) and beamforming aided by advanced antennas with a large number of steerable ports. Massive MIMO enhances both the user experience and the capacity of the networks.
Multi-User MIMO plug-in, which is built on Massive MIMO, the Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) transfers data to multiple user devices using the same time and frequency resources and coordinates beamforming. MU-MIMO gives a better user experience, enhances network capacity and reduces interference.
RAN Virtualization plug-in, which is RAN Virtualization 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 plug-in, where 5G and 4G coverage areas overlap, Intelligent Connectivity 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.
Latency Reduction plug-in, which shortens access procedures and changes the frame structure to allow instant network access and more frequent transmissions. This in turn minimizes time-to-content while allowing real-time communications for key 5G applications like smart vehicles.
The plug-ins are exists for operator trials starting in 2016 and will be available for commercial networks beginning in 2017.