InterDigital completes 5G ready mmW wireless crosshaul tests

Mobile technology research and development company InterDigital has completed a successful trial of its millimeter wave (mmW) EdgeLink 60GHz solution and Fast-Forward 70GHz solution. The tests meet new 5G transport requirements, as defined by the various 5G standardisation groups in 3GPP, ETSI, IEEE, and eCPRI. The solution proved the feasibility of 5G fronthaul upper-layer and lower-layer transport over wireless.

 

“We are pleased with the successful conclusion of this 2 month trial marking the end of 3 years of close collaboration among 20 partners in the 5G-Crosshaul consortium. This is a crucial step towards further trials scheduled in 2018 and 2019, including 5G-Crosshaul alongside 5G New Radio and 5G Core Network, paving the way for the commercial deployment of 5G networks,” said Alan Carlton, vice president, InterDigital Europe.

 

The successful trial was a key part of a larger two-month trial integrating technology innovations from six partners in the H2020 5G-Crosshaul consortium, InterDigital, Ericsson, Nokia, UC3M, NEC and CND. The trial started in November 2017 and was conducted in Madrid (Spain) at 5TONIC, an open research and innovation lab focusing on 5G technologies. The 5G-Crosshaul consortium, over the three years 2015-2017, has developed a novel 5G integrated fronthaul/backhaul transport solution, named 5G-Crosshaul, that enables flexible transport reconfiguration via Software Defined Networking (SDN) in a multi-tenant, multi-domain environment, while meeting 5G’s stringent service requirements.

 

5G-Crosshaul is an international project with 20 members aimed at developing integrated fronthaul and backhaul system solutions to support flexibility and unified management for 5G network architectures.