5G

New research by engineers from the Universities of Bristol and Lund, working alongside National Instruments (NI), has demonstrated how a massive antenna system can offer a 12-fold increase in spectrum efficiency compared with current 4G cellular technology. Multiple antenna technology, referred to as MIMO, is already used in many Wi-Fi routers and 4G cellular phone systems.

A research by engineers from the Universities of Bristol and Lund, working alongside National Instruments (NI), has demonstrated how a massive antenna system can offer a 12-fold increase in spectrum efficiency compared with current 4G cellular technology. Multiple antenna technology, referred to as MIMO, is already used in many Wi-Fi routers and 4G cellular phone systems. Normally this involves up to four antennas at a base station.

Wednesday’s budget saw a number of announcements that were welcomed by the UK technology sector – particularly in the areas of autonomous vehicles and 5G. George Osborne’s announcement committed the UK to delivering a 5G strategy next year and delivering a ‘big data hub’ for the Office for National Statistics, as well as plans to relax regulations surrounding connected cars.

Integrated Device Technology has teamed with Prodrive Technologies to develop a portfolio of RapidIO-enabled switch appliances, delivering the ultra-low latency, high bandwidth and energy efficiency needed for the development of a variety of wireless and data centre applications. Featuring 100ns switch latency, the appliances are suited for designs in 5G, C-RAN, mobile edge computing, high-performance computing, data analytics and financial trading.

Aiming to increase the sustainable competitiveness of Swedish industry, Chalmers University, Ericsson and SKF have announced the launch of 5G Enabled Manufacturing (5GEM), a two-year project to combine 5G with manufacturing technologies.

Oulu, Finland, is looking for the world’s greatest 5G ideas, 5GFWD – Oulu 5G Innovation Challenge – is now officially open. This competition challenges the world’s sharpest innovators, designers, companies and teams to develop 5G innovations that could make our life better, easier and happier.

The availability of previously unused high frequency spectrum bands may be the enabling factor in wireless backhaul for the next generation of mobile networks, writes Sally Ward-Foxton.

5G, the next generation of wireless communications, should be operational by 2020. However, to make the planned, significant performance boost over today’s networks possible, extensive preliminary investigations are required. Finding and characterising suitable transmission channels will play an important role. Rohde & Schwarz explain more.

The EU and Brazil signed an agreement to develop 5G, the next-gen of communication networks. The Commission also started work on an action plan to deploy the technology in the EU by 2020. In the future, everybody and everything will use 5G. By 2020, there will be 26 billion connected devices and 70% of people will own a smartphone. 5G will be the backbone of the EU Digital Single Market, industries of the future, modern public services and innovative applications such as connected cars, smart homes or mobile health services.

Intel Corporation today announced industry partnerships and products that lay the groundwork for faster, smarter and more efficient 5G wireless networks designed to deliver 'amazing' new experiences throughout daily life. From embedded devices in athletes’ equipment and drones with collision avoidance capabilities, to autonomous vehicles, smart cities and more, connecting 'things' to each other, to people and the cloud is placing unprecedented demands on today’s wireless networks.