Ericsson is bringing the best of technology innovations to the Indian market to enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G. The company has introduced a new category of radio products called Street Macro; a new site type that addresses the need for operators to grow in cities with limited available radio locations. The company has also launched new radio products that support Massive MIMO technology. These products enable a smooth evolution from 4G to 5G and address the need for increased capacity while simplifying use for wider adoption.
All installed base of radios from the Ericsson Radio System delivered since 2015 will be 5G NR-capable by a remote software installation. Ericsson recently completed its 5G platform with the launch of 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) commercial software, based on the recently approved first 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard. The 5G radio network software complements Ericsson’s already launched baseband and 5G radios. Operators can simply activate their 5G networks and take the first steps with commercial 5G capabilities and new applications leveraging advanced mobile broadband services.
This will cater efficiently for growing data traffic and enable access to multimedia content, such as 4K/8K video streaming and virtual reality/augmented reality. According to Ericsson’s new economic study of enhanced mobile broadband, evolution to 5G will enable 10 times lower cost per gigabyte than current 4G networks. To help operators capture growth opportunities presented by new 5G use cases, Ericsson has expanded its 5G Core System offering with new capabilities to support 5G NR and also enhanced its Distributed Cloud solution.
Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India said, “Operators today are looking at ways and means to increase network capacity especially in urban areas. It is here that Ericsson’s Street Macro adds a new layer in the network layer to boost capacity enabling service providers to cater to the growing demands of data users. Our studies, in fact, indicate that Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) will be the first large-scale global 5G use case, driven by a need for more efficient networks and better user experience.”
The announcement came on the sidelines of Ericsson’s annual technology roadshow in India, where the company recreated a “Do Zone” to showcase the highlights from Mobile World Congress 2018. Over 20 state of the art proof points were displayed at the ‘Do Zone’ to give a glimpse of the future that will be enabled by 5G.
Key Highlights from Ericsson “Do Zone”
Build your 5G Future on Today’s 4G – Efficiencies and business innovation can be created today on 4G. By running scenarios on a city model, we showcase Centralized and Decentralized Radio Architecture, Core, and RAN Virtualization, Network Slicing, 5G deployment scenarios, Transport Evolution, among other technological deployments on the road to 5G.
VR Experience Optimization – As networks evolve to 5G, issues in the E2E scenario will need to be addressed to ensure best end-user experience. The demo deals with scenarios where ‘App Experience Optimization’ detects issues like latency spikes and low throughput, suggests and implements actions to improve end-user experience.
NFV here and now – NFV is a prerequisite for 5G. It is crucial to enable efficiencies and agility to support new business. The demo showcases Ericsson’s complete distributed NFV-based core network, ready for delivery for 4G and 5G platform. It enables shorter TTM for new services and higher efficiency with short upgrade cycles.
Cellular for Massive IoT – NB-IoT and Cat-M1 leverage existing network infrastructure, open up great business and revenue growth potential for mobile operators with new services and applications. This proof point addresses the potential use cases with the new technologies and Ericsson e2e Massive IoT solutions.
Mixed Reality Mining – This demo displays the future concepts on AR and VR which can be adapted for a mining use case. It offers users a chance to experience what could be done with great connectivity, i.e. 5G, precise positioning, and augmented, mixed and virtual reality (AR/MR/VR) in a mining context.
Insight Driven Automated Operations – Data-driven network analysis in real time enables more precise service operations and Customer Experience Management, thereby creating more value. Ericsson Expert Analytics makes analytics-driven CEM a reality by creating insights based on unique real-time network correlations across different domains.
After many years of work with standards and technology, 5G is moving into the commercial phase. To date, Ericsson has signed 39 memorandums of understanding with service providers for trials. Even more importantly, Ericsson has signed several commercial contracts with deliveries already by the end of this year.
