Ericsson 5G prototypes connect moving vehicle at multi-gbps speeds

NEW DELHI: As mobile operators worldwide plan their business and network evolution to 5G, the ability to support vehicular-speed mobility will be critical to a number of new 5G use cases including smart vehicles and intelligent transport applications such as driverless cars and buses. To address this requirement,  Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson has already demonstrated support for mobile connections exceeding 7 Gbps speeds to a moving vehicle travelling around the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

Joakim Sorelius, Head of 5G Architecture, Ericsson, says: “In February, we demonstrated more than 25 Gbps throughput for both mobile and fixed devices. Now, our latest 5G technology breakthrough will enable operators to field trial key 5G applications requiring high performance connectivity to cars, buses, and trains for smart vehicle and intelligent transport use cases.”

The demonstration, which took place on June 10 in the area surrounding the Ericsson headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, leveraged the same radio access equipment, known as Ericsson 5G Radio Prototypes, currently being used in mobile operators’ 5G field trials. The 5G device in the Ericsson van was able to maintain a mobile connection with the network of more than 7 Gbps as it travelled down the road.

For this live demonstration, the Ericsson 5G Radio Prototypes used the new 5G radio interface called NR (New Radio) together with Massive MIMO. Massive MIMO is the combination of MIMO and beamforming with a large number of antenna elements. Massive MIMO improves the user experience, through higher throughput, but also increases the coverage, capacity and energy efficiency of the mobile network.

Massive MIMO is also one of the Ericsson 5G Plug-Ins, launched in June, which are software innovations designed to bring essential 5G technology concepts to today's cellular networks.

Ericsson is already working with more than 20 leading mobile operators worldwide on 5G networking and use cases, including 5G field trials in 2016. 5G will impact the entire mobile network and associated ecosystem, from devices to radio access to the mobile core and into the cloud. Ericsson 5G Radio Prototypes and 5G Plug-Ins are designed for the radio access network.