Ericsson, Intel and China Mobile announced the completion of a standards-compliant 5G call just hours after new specifications were approved.
The companies said the test at Ericsson’s Beijing lab was the first multi-vendor 5G call to meet 3GPP’s standalone 5G New Radio specifications, which were adopted at the standards group’s meeting in California on Thursday.
The latest specifications, company officials noted, matched the physical layer standards of the non-standalone specifications approved late last year. The demonstration, in particular, met requirements for supporting multiple numerologies, flexible frame structures, channel coding, Massive MIMO technology, multiple spectrum bands and lean designs.
Engineers conducted the test using Ericsson’s 5G NR base stations and Intel’s 5G NR UE prototypes on 100 MHz of the 3.5 GHz spectrum band.
“Successfully completing the first 3GPP-compliant standalone 5G NR call marks another milestone with our ecosystem partners on the path to 5G commercialization, building on our years of research and standardization,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Ericsson EVP and Head of Business Area Networks.
The companies plan to demonstrate a standalone 5G NR live call later this month at Mobile World Congress Shanghai. Ericsson and China Mobile, meanwhile, will conduct a 5G field trial later this year in Suzhou, near Shanghai.