Huawei and Intel said their 5G collaboration has advanced to the testing phase. The two companies are launching 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) based interoperability development testing using Huawei’s 5G base station prototype and Intel’s third generation 5G mobile trial platform. The tests will be conducted in real over-the-air environments directly connecting Huawei’s infrastructure and Intel’s terminal platform, the companies said.
The testing is the next step for a partnership that the companies first announced in February, at Mobile World Congress 2017.
Huawei said the two companies will jointly verify the performance of key 5G NR technologies in the sub-6GHz spectrum bands. Tests will be conducted in the C-Band spectrum, which is between 4 GHz and 8 GHz, as well as in millimeter-wave spectrum bands. Huawei has claimed downlink speeds of 20 gigabits per second in the C-Band in 5G tests conducted in China. The company describes C-Band as the “first globally converged 5G spectrum,” and said it will be one of the first spectrum bands commercialized for 5G.
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is expected to finalize a 5G specification for non-standalone 5G New Radio later this year. Non-standalone NR uses new 5G radios for data applications, but uses LTE for the signaling and other control plane applications that manage that data.
Intel said earlier this month that its mobile trial platform will support the non-standalone NR standard for live tests and trials when the standard is available in the fourth quarter of this year. Some of those tests are expected to take place in China with Huawei.
“Intel has been actively collaborating with leading players in the Chinese 5G industry to accelerate 5G R&D tests and commercialization with Intel’s end-to-end 5G technology advantages,” said Asha Keddy, VP in Intel’s communication and devices group, in a press release. “Based on the latest 5G NR technologies, this joint interoperability test with Huawei will further drive unified 5G standards and the industrial ecosystem in China and across the globe.”
