China Mobile and Agilent collaborate on 5G

Fledgling explorations into 5G wireless continue to gain momentum, with the world’s largest mobile operator joining the effort. China Mobile’s research institute has agreed to work with networking testing company Agilent Technologies on 5G wireless network development.
Agilent will support China Mobile Research Institute’s research and development on 5G, and provide test and measurement solutions for 5G wireless systems.
Although LTE releases are still being made and the technology is still considered to be relatively early in its lifespan, work on 5G has been picking up steam. A work group led by test company Anite in the Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society (METIS) published the first channel models for 5G earlier this month. METIS is co-funded by the European Commission. Nokia’s network segment jointly organized a 5G summit in Brooklyn last spring with the NYU Wireless Research Center at the Polytechnic School of Engineering at New York University. And an agreement announced earlier this month between South Korea and the European Commission calls for work toward a global definition of 5G and for South Korea and the EC to coordinate research on the topic.  
CMRI will focus on major technical aspects of 5G, including full-duplex radio, large-scale antenna systems (LSAS), energy efficiency and spectral efficiency co-design, and new signaling and control mechanisms. Agilent said it will have a dedicated team in its own R&D center in Beijing to work directly with CMRI’s teams.
“Our strong collaboration with CMRI on the 5G research will allow us to lead the technology exploration of next-generation wireless communication systems,” said Andy Botka, vice president and general manager of the Microwave and Communications Division at Agilent. “We will provide the CMRI research teams with the measurement expertise required to design, develop and validate their new 5G systems and set up the 5G prototype test-bed.”
Dr. Chih-Lin I, chief scientist for CMRI, said that the support from Agilent will enable the organization to “establish the much needed hardware prototype platform for next-generation greener and softer wireless communication systems.”
Agilent’s test and measurement business is in the process of being spun off into its own company, called Keysight Technologies. That separation is expected to be complete in early November.
Image from Agilent Technologies