COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
interoperability with a Samsung base station using mmWave frequencies.
The SDR is a very flexible hardware platform
driven by NI LabVIEW software. It offers the ability to test across the whole signal chain, giving test capabilities to silicon providers as well as end user equipment. White expects a lot of trials and collaborative projects to begin in the coming year, with the first emergence of handsets below the 6GHz frequency. White explains that the technology and initial
specification are already there and being exploited. “At MWC 2018, we showed the 5G sub-6GHz test reference system, which is being targeted at semiconductor testing,” he says. NI is well positioned to help companies looking to
exploit the potential of 5G throughout the supply chain, having been engaged with the technology right from the very start. “We were involved in the initial 5G research six years ago and we’ve evolved with the technology so we’re very much a part of it,” adds White.
MORE FUNCTIONS FOR IOT, VR & V2X Beyond 2020, the release of the Phase 2 standard will provide the technology to drive big changes in the IoT, virtual reality and V2X (vehicle-to-vehicle / infrastructure) communications.
NI is currently collaborating with the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick with a laboratory upgrade that now includes 5G mmWave technology. The WMG will use the mmWave
Transceiver System to expand the University’s research from traditional sub 6 GHz frequencies into the new mmWave spectrum and unlock significantly wider blocks of contiguous bandwidth. More bandwidth means higher data throughputs, which are already beginning to lead to a variety of improvements in the way Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) communicate. Existing 4G systems are lacking for
❱❱ To read more on 5G, scan the QR code or visit
https://goo.gl/3etx44
mmWAVE PUSHES VEHICLE COMMS ABOVE 6GHZ
several reasons, most importantly high latency and lack of data throughput. Since Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure communication needs to be fast in order to be meaningful, latencies above the 1 ms stated goal of 5G will not give the vehicle enough time to react. Large bandwidths are necessary to
send and receive the massive amounts of data potentially sent between sensors, the cloud and other vehicles. The research being performed at
the University of Warwick will be one key element in the future of commercially viable autonomous transport systems.
IoT applications will benefit from the 1,000 times
increase in connection capabilities, while the route to VR and V2X will be smoother thanks to the sub- millisecond latency. Twelve months ago we discussed the generation
gap, where I expressed concern that the fifth generation may not be around in time for its demand based on the rapid increase in connected devices. I asked Yost if this gap had been addressed. “The IoT exists today. It won’t wait for technology
to catch up and it doesn’t need to. What 5G will do is enable its further development and have additional functionality with richer features. VR over the IoT will be one such feature,” she explains.
LINKING GROWTH TO TECHNOLOGY TRENDS According to Jeffrey Phillips, section manager product marketing for 5G, Big Data and the IIoT at NI, the two booming areas for technology development are in the automotive industry and telephone handsets. These are the areas that will largely drive the pace and be the source of funding. “Consumer demand for the latest handsets will be
the main thing that drives infrastructure development and this will define the timeline to a large extent,” he says.
MANAGING BIG DATA As 5G enables communications over the IIoT to become faster and the notion of Industry 4.0 becomes an achievable reality, the amount of data available to companies for analysing will grow enormously. According to Phillips, this will need rich data
management, aggregation and analysis. He believes that artificial intelligence (AI) will be of benefit based on the quality of the data that becomes available. “We are already at a point where there is too much
data for companies to handle meaningfully. Companies are going to have to move away from the current trend of analysing only 6-7 per cent of the available data to a comparatively enormous 60 per cent in the future,” he says. To enter the realms of such Big Data analysis, AI
will have to take over so that the data can be swiftly and easily turned into usable information, according to Phillips. EE
16 /// Environmental Engineering /// June 2018
❱❱ Software Defined Radio can test interoperability between base stations and handsets or IoT devices without being brand-specific, left; research fellows at Warwick University are using the 5G mmWave spectrum to define vehicle to vehicle communications, below
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