At the Mobile World Congress (MWC 17), in Barcelona, Viavi Solutions has released new industry data on the state of 5G trials occurring globally. Despite official 5G standards not being expected until 2020, the report projects 25 mobile operators to have already announced that they are lab testing 5G. Among those, 12 have progressed to field testing with four others to follow soon.
According to the report, five operators reached data speeds of 35 Gbps or more in 5G trials. Etisalat demonstrated the highest data speed of 36 Gbps, with Ooredoo conducting tests at 35.46 Gbps. Optus, M1 and Starhub reached 35 Gbps, with all other operators conducting 5G trials reporting data transmission speeds of at least 2 Gbps. Operators are now testing across a wide range of bandwidths, ranging from sub-3 GHz to 86 GHz. Of the operators that have disclosed their test spectrum, the most commonly trialed wavelength is 28 GHz, with eight operators using it, as well as 15 GHz, being used in trials by seven operators.
The industry report indicates all of the five major network equipment providers, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Samsung and ZTE to have been involved in 5G trials. While some operators are using just one network equipment provider in their trials, many are using multiple vendors during trial stages. KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom) is including all five network equipment providers in its trials.
At the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2017, Viavi will be showcasing solutions to light the path to 5G for the mobile communications ecosystem which include:
Virtualization – Test and Assurance as a Service: Collaborating with ON.Lab, Radisys and other CORD Project partners, Viavi will demonstrate orchestrated Test and Assurance as a Service using the M-CORD 5G open reference solution.
Visibility - Location-Aware, App-Aware Analytics: The industry’s only machine-learning, location intelligence solution for 2G, 3G and 4G network performance optimization that has been augmented with app awareness. The platform also enables end-to-end automation of programmable networks—which will be a critical part of 5G—and monetization of network and subscriber usage data to maximize the network’s value.
Versatility - Test and Assurance for Physical, Virtual and Hybrid Networks: Viavi’s market-leading, cloud-enabled test instrument portfolio including CellAdvisor with BBU emulation, InterferenceAdvisor and MTS/T-BERD® 5800-100G Field Tester for managing legacy networks and operating models.
