5G/6G

Skyworks Solutions announced that it is ramping 5G small cell and massive MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) solutions that significantly enhance network efficiency, delivering higher capacity with greater coverage. Small cells are low power, easy-to-implement radio access points that operate in both licensed and unlicensed spectrums with a typical range of ten to several hundred metres.

Advanced operators and markets in Africa are poised for early 5G launches, with South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, and Mauritius expected to launch mobile 5G services by 2022, according to recent forecasts by Ovum. However, the take-up of 5G in Africa overall will be modest initially, with only 5.9 million mobile 5G connections on the continent at end-2023, Ovum has forecasted. 

  The results of the Keysight 2018 State of 5G survey have been released, and the survey found that companies primarily invest in 5G technology to secure market leadership, meet customer demand, and take advantage of flexible and scalable networks.

  A whitepaper titled ‘Wireless Transport Modernisation for 5G’, has been published by NEC Corporation. The whitepaper outlines the importance of the transport network and how to repurpose existing transport infrastructure for the 5G era.

The new 5G standards have arrived and the corresponding networks are predicted to roll-out across the UK in late 2019. However, what can we expect in the lead-up to ubiquitous 5G? Ken Karnofsky, Senior Strategist for Signal Processing Applications at MathWorks, plays future gazer and gives us his market predictions for 2019.

Fujitsu and Ericsson have entered an agreement to deliver end-to-end 5G network solutions and related services under a strategic partnership. The two companies are joining forces to develop this based on their combined portfolios - spanning radio access and core network - for the dynamic 5G market in Japan, connecting communications service providers to the global 5G ecosystem.

With the adoption of 3GPP Release 15 in June 2018, the definition of 5G standards has already been partially completed. But even before finalisation, industries were busy laying the foundations for new technologies and applications that take advantage of the performance enhancements and new uses that 5G networks bring.  

Following the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation’s (Europol) 2018 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) report, Gary Barton, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, has offered his insight on why governments and regulators should consider how criminals may use 5G connectivity.

IoT software to critical infrastructure provider, Wind River, has collaborated with BT on a research activity showcasing edge cloud compute applications. The joint proof of concept will be demonstrated by Wind River (booth C7) at SDN NFV World Congress 2018 and features Wind River Titanium Cloud, a deployment-ready virtualisation software platform.

Ericsson predicts that by 2023 every active smartphone in North America will consume 48 gigabytes of data per month. This is roughly seven times higher than in 2017. In global markets, this trend is the same, driven by improvements in our smartphones, increasingly data-heavy content, and better, more affordable data plans.