NTT DoCoMo on Wednesday partnered with another five vendors for the purpose of trialling potential 5G technologies.
Chip giants Intel and Qualcomm Technologies will help the Japanese mobile operator test 5G handset processors and 5G radio interfaces respectively. DoCoMo will also evaluate test and measurement instruments from Keysight Technologies and Rohde & Schwarz. Japanese electronics maker Panasonic is also involved, providing multi-frequency-band control units.
"Global expectations for 5G are growing as we approach the start of the standardisation phase," said Seizo Onoe, CTO of DoCoMo, in a statement.
"We are delighted to form these new collaborations on 5G experimental trials for wider technical areas to establish the 5G ecosystem with additional world-leading global ve ndors to promote R&D targeted at 5G deployment in 2020," he said.
The companies aim to begin technical discussions and various indoor trials at one of DoCoMo’s R&D facilities before the end of DoCoMo’s current fiscal year in March 2016.
The group will then undertake outdoor trials. The findings will be shared with global research bodies and at international conferences, DoCoMo said.
In a separate announcement, DoCoMo said it has begun work on testing 5G services using sub-6-GHz spectrum in partnership with one of its other 5G partners, Nokia Networks.
In a joint research project, the companies aim to achieve peak throughput of 10 Gbps and extremely low latency.
DoCoMo and Nokia will also trial licence assisted access (LAA) technology, which aggregates an LTE carrier operating in unlicensed spectrum with one operating in licensed spectrum, thereby increasing capacity.
Nokia Networks and DoCoMo have "moved to the next level of strategic engagement with this agreement," said Niko Lalu, vice president of Nokia Networks’ HetRAN division. "The initiative underlines our commitment to support the operator in its endeavour to deliver an unparalleled experience to customers in Japan."
