Ericsson is already working with more than 20 leading mobile operators worldwide on 5G networking and use cases, including 5G field trials in 2016. To facilitate a rapid evolution of 5G access networks and the successful adoption of 5G services, Ericsson is announcing 5G Plug-Ins, software-driven innovations that bring essential 5G technology concepts to today’s cellular networks. The development of 5G is a perfect example of how development is now driven by new potential applications.
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. As a result, mobile operators are today planning for their 5G future.
LTE will continue to expand and evolve, addressing both an increased number of subscribers and their growing demands for extreme app coverage for data and video, as well as new low power wide area (LPWA) applications for the Internet of Things (IoT). In 2019, LTE will be the dominant mobile access technology globally and will reach a total of 4.3 billion subscriptions by the end of 2021.
In parallel, the development of 5G will encompass an evolution of today's radio access technologies and the addition of new, globally standardized technologies, often in higher frequencies. These higher frequencies have a shorter transmission range than current cellular networks and are prone to attenuation from foliage and weather-related factors, which can impact performance and reliability. However, the key success factor in 5G will not only be effectively leveraging these new spectrum bands, but also ensuring that the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" when it comes to combining LTE with new radio access technologies.
This is where their 5G Plug-Ins come in. These 5G Plug-Ins are software-driven innovations supported by the Ericsson Radio System, and are specifically focused on capabilities that operators can leverage within current networks to facilitate their evolution to 5G.
Peter Jarich, Vice President, Consumer and Infrastructure Services, Current Analysis, says: "5G has gained undeniable momentum over the last year. Yet, without spectrum allocations or ratified standards, operators need a migration tactic allowing them to leverage current network investments in synch with their 5G evolution strategies. Ericsson's 5G Plug-Ins deliver this flexibility, supporting the deployment of advanced access technologies in the near-term, and in preparation for 5G."
With 5G Plug-Ins, mobile operators can begin to trial and implement 5G technology as early as this year, and evolve to 5G at their own pace.
The first series of 5G Plug-Ins include:
- Massive MIMO Plug-In: Improving both the user experience as well as the capacity and coverage of the mobile network, Massive MIMO combines MIMO with beamforming on advanced antennas.
- Multi-User MIMO Plug-In: Multi-User or MU-MIMO provides a better user experience, enhances network capacity and coverage, and reduces interference. MU-MIMO increases capacity by transmitting data to multiple user devices simultaneously using the same time and frequency resources with coordinated beamforming.
- RAN Virtualization Plug-In: RAN Virtualization improves network efficiency and performance by enabling Virtual Network Functions (VNF) to be centralized on a common platform supporting both 4G and 5G.
- Intelligent Connectivity Plug-In: Intelligent Connectivity increases the combined data throughput of 4G and 5G resources by enabling the network to robustly anchor and intelligently route data based on application requirements and network resource availability.
- Latency Reduction Plug-In: Latency reduction reduces time to content while enabling real-time communications for key 5G applications such as smart vehicles. By shortening access procedures and modifying the frame structure, Latency Reduction enables instant network access and more frequent transmissions.
5G will impact the entire mobile network and associated ecosystem, from devices to radio access to the mobile core and into the cloud. Their 5G Plug-Ins are designed for the radio access network and leverage the technology innovations enabled by the award-winning Ericsson 5G Radio Test Bed and Ericsson 5G Radio Prototypes already deployed and in field trials in Japan, South Korea, the US and Sweden. These 5G Radio Prototypes have already achieved peak downlink throughput of more than 25Gbps.
