Intel, Huawei achieve world’s first 5G NR Interoperability

Deutsche Telekom (DT), Intel and Huawei on Wednesday announced achieving the world's first 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT) with a commercial base station.

The test, based on Huawei's 5G commercial base station and Intel's third generation 5G NR Mobile Trial Platform (MTP), is a critical step towards the full commercial launch of Huawei and Intel solutions supporting millions of devices in 2019.

"As the standard continues to be updated, Huawei will continue to work with all parties to step up interoperability test and promote the 5G-industry maturity process," Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei's 5G product line, said.

Deutsche Telekom and Huawei began cooperation on 5G-network research in 2015.

Using Huawei's commercial NR base station and the Intel 5G NR Mobile Trial Platform, the companies jointly verified the fundamentals of the new "5G 3GPP NR" standard -- including new synchronisation, coding, frame structure and numerology components.

"The success of our test is a significant step on the path to 5G ecosystem maturity and early 5G commercialisation," said Arash Ashouriha, Senior Vice President Technology Innovation of Deutsche Telekom.

"Intel has been actively working with leading 5G companies to take advantage of Intel's unique end-to-end 5G NR technology and to accelerate 5G testing and commercialisation based on the latest 5G NR technology," added Asha Keddy, Vice President Client, and General Manager Next Generation Standards, Intel Corporation.

The first 5G NR standard was successfully completed on December 21 last year in Lisbon.

Ericsson, Qualcomm on 5G Interoperability

In December last year, Ericsson along with other tech firms including Qualcomm, AT&T, NTT Docomo, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telstra, and T-Mobile demonstrated 5G interoperability using the 3GPP standard.

"The newly approved 3GPP standard for NSA 5G NR will use the existing LTE radio and evolved packet core network as an anchor for mobility management and coverage while adding a new 5G NR radio access carrier to enable certain 5G use cases starting in 2019," Ericsson said on its website.

3GPP NR standard for 5G

The technology firms are leveraging standards set for 5G by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). The body last year finalised specifications for 5G network allowing the industry players to make uniform preparation for the next-gen network.

"The 5G stage 2 level specifications include the overall architecture model and principles, eMBB data services, subscriber authentication and service usage authorisation, application support in general, but also specifically for applications closer to the radio as with edge computing. Its support for IMS includes also emergency and regulatory services specifics," said the industry body.

(With inputs from HT Correspondent)