Leti announces EU/South Korean project for world’s first 5G-system prototype

Leti, a research institute of CEA Tech, today announced a European and South Korean project, 5G CHAMPION, to deliver the world’s first fully integrated and operational 5G prototype in conjunction with the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The team of eight European and 13 Korean partners will develop a new architecture that provides an efficient end-to-end system performance encompassing cutting-edge 5G radio-access, core-network and satellite technologies. It will be the first time ever that state-of-the-art terrestrial wireless communication, including future key enablers such as mmWave access, will be seamlessly combined with disruptive satellite communication. This will form a 5G network with multi-radio-access technologies (multi-RAT) that is optimized to serve user equipment in various applications.

“5G next-generation communication systems will be a global game changer from technological, economic, societal and environmental perspectives,” said Emilio Calvanese Strinati, Leti’s director of smart devices & telecommunications-strategy programs. “Showcasing key enabling technologies for a proof-of-concept environment at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea, will allow maximum visibility for the available technology two years ahead of the official launch of 5G in 2020.”

Coordinated by Leti, the project will focus on some of the main challenges for the design of the 5G networks:

• Improving latency in the millisecond range
• Providing high throughput in very dense user environments
• Enabling cost-effective network management
• Enhancing quality of service in high-speed mobility conditions, high precision/integrity location and timing estimation
• Allowing ubiquitous service provisioning, as well as flexibility in equipment reconfiguration through softwareThese technologies are of particular interest for high-speed mobile broadband and the Internet of Things and their respective integration of heterogeneous technologies in a common framework.

  In addition to Leti, the 21 partners are:

  – Europe: NOKIA, Intel Deutschland, Thales AS, Fraunhofer HHI, University of Oulu, Tlepespazio, iMinds
  – South Korea: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) (the Korean project coordinator), SK Telecom, KT, SMRT, Eluon, Clever Logic, Insoft, Mobigen, HFR, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Dankook University and Hanyang University.