Ericsson has enhanced its 5G Platform for operators with new solutions for its radio and core network.
The firm launched its 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) commercial software, which is based on the recently approved 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR). The 5G Platform was initially introduced in February 2017 with additions adapted to it in September.
5G is the next generation of mobile communication standard and could emerge commercially as early as 2020. Ericsson's 5G-radio network, meanwhile, will be available during the later stages of 2018.
An important improvement to the Ericsson 5G Platform is the introduction of a new category of radio products known as Street Macro which will seek to address the need of operators in cities with limited radiolocations available. They can be mounted on building facades with a smaller footprint than a normal tower, but the necessary strength to secure network efficiency and coverage.
Ericsson has also evolved its Distributed Cloud offering for cloud application deployment across multiple sites, be it central, distributed or edge. Ericsson believes this will improve latency, security and resilience and fulfills the regulatory requirements for 5G.
"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," said Roberto Kompany, senior snalyst at Analysys Mason.
"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."
Ericsson's latest version of 5G Platform will be available from the fourth quarter of 2018.
