Ericsson claims 5G first with new radio equipment

Ericsson announced that it will launch the world’s first commercial 5G new radio equipment for massive MIMO and multi-user MIMO in 2017.

The Sweden-based equipment vendor said its Air 6468 radio integrates advanced antennas with a large number of steerable ports -- a combination the company said will enable 5G technologies including beamforming, and massive and multi-user MIMO.

In a statement, Ericsson explained that the new radio will place it in a leading position in terms of delivering all of the components required to launch a 5G access network. The Air 6468 complements 5G plug-ins the vendor announced in June, and its commercially launched Radio System Baseband 5216 that is currently used in Ericsson’s Radio Test Bed.

Arun Bansal, head of business unit Network Products at Ericsson, said the 5G hardware and plug-ins mean “the first operators can start to deploy 5G infrastructure.” The vendor is “also launching innovations that improve both the performance and efficiency of today’s networks using concepts that will evolve into 5G.”

One such innovation is the network deployment delivery platform, which covers the installation, configuration, integration, shakedown, and handover of a fully verified site, and is designed to ensure those tasks are completed in a single site visit.

Ericsson also announced a range of new hardware designed to enable the development of 5G concepts.

These include the Radio 4407 and 4412, which Ericsson said enable 4x4 MIMO in a single radio unit for FDD and TDD modes of LTE, and the Radio 8808 for advanced TDD beamforming applications. All three radios enable gigabit speeds in LTE, the vendor said.

The Radio 2205 is tailored towards growing requirements to access unlicensed spectrum in small cells, while a pair of new baseband units -- Baseband 6502 and macro Baseband 6303 -- are designed to meet the growing need for network densification. Ericsson also unveiled the Baseband P614, which it said addresses interference in dense network builds by enabling new bands to be activated.

In addition, Ericsson launched the Baseband C608 for cloud RAN, which it said will be an important element in 5G network architecture. The vendor also announced Spectrum Analyser, a software product designed to identify external interference without the need for a site visit as part of spectrum optimisation processes.

For more:

- see this Ericsson announcement

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