Ericsson and IBM have announced collaboration to jointly research phased-array antenna designs for 5G, allowing networks to provide customers with data speeds orders of magnitude faster than what is available currently.
As mobile device manufacturers race to provide the latest features and applications to consumers, and wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies are increasingly used in many areas of society, operators will see rapid growth in data and bandwidth demands. According to the June issue of the Ericsson Mobility Report, there will be a ten-time growth in mobile data traffic by 2019 and the 200 million M2M devices in use at the end of 2013 will grow by three to four times, before 5G even arrives.
Ericsson and IBM will research phased-array antenna techniques to develop prototype systems that will serve more mobile users, enable a multitude of new services on the same frequency, as well as offer data speeds that are orders of magnitude faster than today ? competitive to existing cable and wired internet access speeds.
The phased-array design allows for more directional antennas that are electrically-steerable and will have significant weight and flexibility advantages over existing mechanical antennas. The outcome of these technological advances will integrate on the order of a hundred antennas and radios on a single chip smaller than a credit card in size, greatly facilitating the use of these technologies for high-capacity small cells in indoor spaces and dense downtown areas.
Thomas Nor?n, Head of Product Management Radio, Ericsson, says: ?Ericsson is performing world-class radio research that will enable the extremely high data rates that will be required in the future. We have already showed 5 gbps over-the-air in trials back in July. We are also working to solve the size barrier and look forward to developing antenna technology with IBM that will open up possibilities for new uses. We recently launched the industry?s most flexible small cell, which allows for concurrent use of multiple technologies. Even with its tablet-sized footprint, the form-factor was limited by components inside. This research collaboration will help us enable mobile network builds that provide the right coverage and capacity even in the densest urban environment.?
Dr. Mehmet Soyuer, Manager of the Communication and Computation Subsystems Department, IBM Research says: ?We have accumulated over 10 years of experience in developing radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit and packaging solutions, demonstrating highly integrated phased arrays for various applications. We look forward to collaborating with Ericsson to help shape the future of mobile communications.?
