Ericsson has released its first commercial 5G RAN software so that operators can turn on 5G in their commercial network in Q4 2018. This software is based on the recently approved first 3GPP 5G NR standard. It also introduces a new category of radio products called Street Macro aimed at addressing the need of operators to grow in cities with limited number of radio locations.
The radio offering is complemented with 5G Core commercial software optimised for 5G throughput, network capacity and scalability. In addition, Ericsson has also evolved its Distributed Cloud offering for cloud application deployment across multiple sites – central, distributed, and edge. As part of this, Ericsson will support deployments of hardware options in a multi-vendor framework. A distributed cloud capability that enables cloud computing, storage and networking to be placed flexibly in central, regional and edge locations and which can be managed seamlessly, end-to-end, is an important component of a 5G platform, according to Roberto Kompany, senior analyst at Analysys Mason. “Reduced latency, improved throughput, better security, reliability and regulatory compliance are all critical capabilities that operators must deliver for 5G use cases such as augmented reality, assisted factory and autonomous driving vehicles.”
Ericsson has unveiled new radio products supporting Massive MIMO technology. Moreover, all installed base radios from the Ericsson Radio System delivered since 2015 will be 5G NR-capable by a remote software installation.
Fredrik Jejdling, EVP and Head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson, said: “Operators who want to be early with 5G now have the essential pieces for launching 5G networks already this year. With our expanded platform, they will get more efficient networks as well as opportunities to create new revenues from emerging consumer and industrial use cases.”
“Together with Ericsson, last December – marking an Italian record – we activated a 5G NR cell in the mmW frequencies in the city of Torino, reaching speeds above 20Gbps. We are looking forward to testing Ericsson’s new solutions that will contribute to address the wide variety of use cases we are working on,” said Giovanni Ferigo, CTO, TIM.
The new 5G software will be available in Q4 of 2018.
