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TCL Communication is demonstrating 5G communications based on an open source – full software implementation – at Mobile World Congress 2018 being held February 26 – March 1, 2018 in Barcelona. Using the open source project OpenAirInterface (OAI), TCL Communication and its partners (EURECOM and Creonic) have realised the implementation of real-time 5G User Equipment (UE) allowing the demonstration of 5G in the 3.5 GHz band on 80 MHz channels; a configuration applicable to European, and Asian markets. These demonstrations are a groundbreaking step forward in the future consumer product release of 5G devices from TCL Communication.

“As a contributor to the 3GPP standardisation effort, we have been engaged actively since early 2015 in the prototyping of 5G technologies to prepare the introduction of our first 5G products in second half of 2019 in-line with the market demand for 5G wireless broadband access in North America and Europe markets”, said Christian Gatti, Global president Alcatel Business Division and executive vice president TCL Communication. “With the full-software implementation announced today we’re now able to prototype 5G innovations and perform field trials later this year with operators involved with us in collaborative projects such as MASS START. We are very proud of these collaborations and the great technological advances we will bring together in the future.”

The 5G NR numerologies, waveforms and channel coding implemented by TCL Communication demonstrate the maximum throughput of 5G for one transmission layer and the reduced latency of 5G compared to 4G.

Combined together, the higher throughput and reduced latency of 5G open doors for a much-improved user experience and will enable new use cases such as:

- High-speed broadband access in remote locations

- Nearly instant content access from any connected device

- High resolution and interactive virtual reality and machine control – such as drones, robots and autonomous vehicles

These experiments and technology developments allow TCL Communication to take a leading role on the 5G end-users connectivity.

“This 5G experiment is a demonstration that OpenAirInterface is the perfect tool for fast and efficient prototyping with this 5G implementation available just two months after the specifications release,” said Raymond Knopp, professor at EURECOM. EURECOM is founder of OAI, and contributes to the gNodeB implementation allowing the end-to-end demonstration; a first 5G version will be released publicly on OAI in the second quarter of 2018.

“Creonic is the market leader in the field of communications IP cores for Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits, and we are proud to have been selected as the provider for the LDPC IP that will enable the higher performanceOpenAirInterface implementations using FPGAs”, said Timo Lehnigk-Emden, CEO, Creonic.” The company has announced the commercial availability of its 5G LDPC and Polar IP and will make a version available to interested OAI members for research and demonstration purposes.

To see TCL Communication’s 5G demonstration, please visit our booth during Mobile World Congress: Hall 3, Stand 3D11 from February 26 through March 1, 2018.