Intel has announced a swathe of partnerships and products to accelerate development and innovation in 5G wireless networks.
As greater demands on wireless infrastructure are being made through the onset and propagation of IoT-enabled devices, Intel hopes that its various initiatives will enable telecommunications companies to cater to this extra demand, and for device manufacturers to exploit the benefits of 5G connectivity.
During its presentation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Intel announced the following partnerships:
- A collaboration with Ericsson and mobile operators on 5G solutions and joint trial engagement
- KT and Intel to implement 5G trials in 2018 to develop and verify 5G wireless technology, virtual network platforms and joint standardisation efforts
- Development and pilot of 5G telematics technology with LG Electronics for next-generation motor vehicles
- Development with Nokia on pre-standard 5G radio technologies and network solutions, and interoperability of 5G radio technologies to meet future wireless network device connectivity requirements
- Development and verification of 5G mobile device and network solutions with SK Telecom
- Field trials with Verizon for 5G wireless solutions, including millimetre-wave (mm-wave) spectrum technology
Intel also announced a 5G Mobile Trial Platform for faster development, integration and testing of 5G devices and wireless access points.
The platform consists of a baseband signal processor powered by Altera Arria 10 FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays), an advanced radio frequency unit supporting operation in sub-6GHz, centimetre-wave (cm-wave) and mm-wave spectrum bands, and a communications protocol stack based on Intel’s Core i7 processor.
This platform will support beamforming and phase-array operation at cm- and mm-wave frequencies, wideband multi-stream operation at sub-6GHz frequencies, multi-gigabit symmetric upload/download speeds for next-gen mobile applications, and network design for ultra-low latency services and ultra-dense massive MIMO (multi-in multi-out) technology, among others.
Intel also announced a number of wireless communications products during its presentation.
The Intel Atom x3-M7272 solution provides a wireless communication platform that meets the performance, scalability and security requirements of the connected car market.
Combining LTE-Advanced, wifi, Bluetooth and GNSS capabilities, this solution provides auto manufacturers a platform to develop new capabilities such as predictive and preventative maintenance, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) safety communication, in-vehicle commerce, telematics and in-cabin multimedia streaming, mobile broadband and augmented navigation.
Intel also announced a number of modems containing Category-M and NarrowBand-IoT technologies, designed to provide wireless connectivity for endpoints such as sensors that have low bandwidth and data rate requirements, and for M2M applications.
