As mobile operators worldwide plan their business and network evolution to 5G, the ability to support vehicular-speed mobility will be critical to a number of new 5G use cases including smart vehicles and intelligent transport applications such as driverless cars and buses. To address this requirement, Ericsson has already demonstrated support for mobile connections exceeding 7 Gbps speeds to a moving vehicle travelling around the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.
Joakim Sorelius, Head of 5G Architecture, Ericsson, says: “In February, we demonstrated more than 25 Gbps throughput for both mobile and fixed devices. Now, our latest 5G technology breakthrough will enable operators to field trial key 5G applications requiring high performance connectivity to cars, buses, and trains for smart vehicle and intelligent transport use cases.”
The demonstration, which took place on June 10 in the area surrounding the Ericsson headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, leveraged the same radio access equipment, known as Ericsson 5G Radio Prototypes, currently being used in mobile operators’ 5G field trials. The 5G device in the Ericsson van was able to maintain a mobile connection with the network of more than 7 Gbps as it travelled down the road.
For this live demonstration, the Ericsson 5G Radio Prototypes used the new 5G radio interface called NR (New Radio) together with Massive MIMO. Massive MIMO is the combination of MIMO and beamforming with a large number of antenna elements. Massive MIMO improves the user experience, through higher throughput, but also increases the coverage, capacity and energy efficiency of the mobile network.