Ericsson this week said it hit another milestone on the road to 5G with the launch of a combined core and radio platform for 5G use cases.
According to the company, the new 5G platform includes the core, radio and transport portfolios, together with digital support systems, transformation services, and security. Ericsson’s head of Business Unit Network Products Arun Bansal said in a Wednesday launch webcast the company believes it is the first to offer a complete 5G platform.
“With this we are the first with combined 5G radio and core and we have the market’s first 5G access and transit portfolio,” Bansal said.
Ericsson’s platform includes the 5G Core System, which can support 5G use cases using network slicing. The core system and applications now also include capabilities like federated network slices for global network slices, network slice management to automate service connections and quality, 5G policy and user data for network slices, distributed cloud for short latency applications, and 5G transformation services to ensure successful migration of the network and operation from the legacy to 5G core. Ericsson pointed out it has already successfully tested – in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom, and SK Telecom – an intercontinental 5G trial network where network slices were made available in the other operator’s footprint.
On the radio and transport front, Ericsson noted the addition of mid-band and high-band 5G New Radio (NR) radios to the 5G NR Radio it launched last year. The company said the 5G radio portfolio will be the first to support the new standardized 5G fronthaul interface (called eCPRI).
Ericsson said trials with 28 different operators are already underway, and indicated it expects an uptick in 5G field tests this year.
On Thursday, the company announced it implemented the first end-to-end 5G trial system with Korea’s SK Telecom back in December in Ericsson’s lab in Kista, Sweden. The trial used Ericsson’s Cloud Core, virtual RAN, and over-the-air NR/LTE interworking. A similar demonstration involving Cloud RAN was also made in collaboration with Telefonica the same month, the company said.
Ericsson will be showcasing and discussing 5G; platforms and services for IT, Cloud, Networks, and TV and Media; connected solutions for industries; and the Internet of Things at its booth in Hall 2 at Mobile World Congress later this month.
