Ericsson partners with IBM to create '5G' antenna design

Ericsson and IBM, on Tuesday announced a collaboration to jointly research phased-array antenna designs for 5G, allowing networks to provide customers with data speeds orders of magnitude faster than what is available currently.

Ericsson and IBM will research phased-array antenna techniques and work to develop prototype systems that will serve more customers, enable new services to operate on the same spectrum frequency and provide real-world speeds that are competitive with existing cable and wired broadband speeds.

The phased-array design allows for more directional antennas that are electrically-steerable and will have significant weight and flexibility advantages over existing mechanical antennas. The vendor said ultimately it will be able to integrate hundreds of antennas and radios on a single chip smaller than a credit card, allowing the technology to be used in small cells for added capacity.

“Ericsson is performing world-class radio research that will enable the extremely high data rates that will be required in the future.  We have already showed 5 Gbps over-the-air in trials back in July. We are also working to solve the size barrier and look forward to developing antenna technology with IBM that will open up possibilities for new uses. We recently launched the industry’s most flexible small cell, which allows for concurrent use of multiple technologies. Even with its tablet-sized footprint, the form-factor was limited by components inside. This research collaboration will help us enable mobile network builds that provide the right coverage and capacity even in the densest urban environment.” Said Thomas Norén, Head of Product Management Radio, Ericsson.

“We have accumulated over 10 years of experience in developing radio frequency integrated circuit and packaging solutions, demonstrating highly integrated phased arrays for various applications,” said IBM Research’s Dr. Mehmet Soyuer, manager of the group’s communication and computation subsystems department. “We look forward to collaborating with Ericsson to help shape the future of mobile communications.”