Road to 5G: Deutsche Telekom, Intel and Huawei Achieve 5G NR Interoperability

Deutsche Telekom (DT), Intel and Huawei have collaborated to achieve 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT) based on the 3GPP R15 Standard with a commercial base station.

This successful 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.

Deutsche Telekom and Huawei began cooperation on 5G-network research in 2015 and committed to accelerating the development of the ecosystem. With the benefit of Intel's 5G NR platforms, the group realized successful IODT tests taking crucial joint steps towards 5G industry maturity.

Using Huawei's commercial NR base station and the Intel 5G NR Mobile Trial Platform, the three parties have jointly verified the fundamentals of the new 5G 3GPP NR standard, including new synchronization, coding, frame structure, and numerology components underlying the interconnection of the NR-compliant terminal and network.

The test configuration used by Deutsche Telekom, Huawei and Intel is based on the largest C-band cell bandwidth defined by the 5G NR standard. It also incorporates the latest Massive MIMO multi-antenna and beamforming technology enabled by the standard framework.

World's first 5G NR Interoperability test based on 3GPP R15 commercial system release

Arash Ashouriha, Senior Vice President Technology Innovation of Deutsche Telekom said: ”After delivering leading contributions to the 3GPP’s work on 5G standards, Deutsche Telekom, Huawei and Intel moved swiftly to jointly verify implementation progress through standards-based interoperability testing. The success of our test is a significant step on the path to 5G ecosystem maturity and early 5G commercialization.”

Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei’s 5G product line, said, "The success of this testing shows that Huawei and all parties have devoted themselves deeply to the new NR standard. 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, and to welcome the arrival of the entire industry digitization.”

Asha Keddy, Vice President Client, and General Manager Next Generation Standards, Intel Corporation, said, "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 commercialization based on the latest 5G NR technology. The Intel® XMM™8000 modem family maturity and time to launch will significantly benefit from this early multi-vendor interoperability progress and the realization of a global 5G NR industry ecosystem, with initial launches in mid-2019 and large-scale scaling in 2020.”

The maturity of the 5G industry is the foundation of 5G NR commercialization. Deutsche Telekom, Intel and Huawei will continue to deepen their cooperation and develop standardized products for the upcoming 5G era.

The first 5G NR standard was successfully completed on December 21, 2017, at the 3GPP TSG RAN meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. All industry partners including operators, equipment vendors and terminal chipset vendors reached agreement to work together to accelerate the 5G NR standard process, and to facilitate the 5G global industrialization process.