Huawei took advantage of recent buzz around European 5G research announcements to flaunt its credentials as a leading player in the European Union's 5G Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) initiative.
The China-headquartered infrastructure company on Monday noted it is contributing towards five of 19 research projects being conducted as part of the 5G-PPP. The company has also initiated direct partnerships in the UK and Germany that saw it awarded a key accolade at the recent 5G World Summit, which formed part of the LTE World Summit event held in Amsterdam in late June.
Huawei's 5G-PPP research comprises:
-- the Fantastic-5G project, a scheme announced last week that aims to define a flexible air interface for 5G wireless networks;
-- METIS-II, which seeks to define the required mobile and wireless communications enablers;
-- mmMagic, a project focused on millimetre-wave based mobile radio access networks for integrated fifth generation communications;
-- 5G-Xhaul, which focuses on dynamic reconfigurable optical-wireless back- and front-haul with cognitive control planes for small cells and cloud-RANs;
-- 5G Exchange, a project that seeks to produce multi-domain orchestration for software defined infrastructures.
In a statement, Huawei explained that most of the projects focus on radio and wireless technologies because most future communications will be wireless. The ultimate goal is to deliver working 5G infrastructure by 2020, it added.
Dr. Wen Tong, Huawei's wireless CTO, said the 5G-PPP initiative will create "vast business opportunities in a number of areas and secure Europe's leadership in 5G."
The company's "collaboration with European industry and research partners is at the very heart" of the company's commitment to 5G, Tong added.
Huawei also noted that its work with the 5G-PPP is just one part of its commitment to European 5G research. The company is also jointly researching 5G technology with the UK-based University of Surrey, and plans to pump £5 million (€7 million/$7.7 million) into the programme by 2018.
The company also launched a large-scale 5G test-bed in Munich named the 5G Vertical Industry Accelerator, which aims to simulate real-world scenarios for 5G deployment through vertical industries.
Huawei's announcement comes less than a week after Alcatel-Lucent revealed it is taking the lead in the Fantastic-5G project, an EC-funded programme that counts Orange, Telecom Italia, Nokia, Samsung and Intel among its partners.
For more:
- see this Huawei announcement
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