A domestic research team has developed a technology that can implement 5G without the help of LTE in small base stations, which is expected to be widely used to provide users with large amounts of high-quality data or to provide 5G-specific network services.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on the 25th that it has developed 5G SA small cell SW technology.

This technology will enable connectivity using only 5G technology in areas such as inside buildings, densely populated areas, and shaded areas. Thanks to this, traffic can be distributed, the perceived communication speed can be increased, and various services can be provided.

ETRI developed communication software for 5G standalone mode small cells and installed it on Qualcomm Technologies Inc.'s FSM100 5G RAN platform (Qualcomm® FSM 5G RAN Platform) to build a 5G small cell standalone mode base station.

The prototype was created through this and its functionality was verified by communicating with a commercial smartphone equipped with a standalone mode function.

The research team demonstrated educational services, disaster safety text messages, and VoNR using AR glasses.

It demonstrated that 5G can be used to exchange large amounts of content and provide services by distinguishing location and direction more precisely than LTE-based technology.

The small cell SW developed by ETRI uses the 3.5 GHz mid-band of the frequencies allocated to 5G and is optimized for the latest base station chipset and given hardware environment.

In fact, the demonstration demonstrated the theoretical maximum performance possible by connecting 32 commercial 5G terminals simultaneously.

The research team stated that they were able to achieve this result after accumulating know-how over several years in areas such as gigabit-level high-speed data processing, 5G small cell scheduling technology that supports various frame structures, and beam management algorithms.

ETRI Mobile Communications Research Center Director Kim Il-gyu said, “Following the development of millimeter wave (mmWave) NSA small cell SW last year, we have successfully secured the core technology to domestically produce various 5G small cell products by securing 5G SA small cell base station SW technology.”

In fact, the research team also advanced the NSA small cell technology operating in the 28GHz band developed last year to be able to achieve a transmission speed of over 1Gbps, up from the existing transmission speed of 550Mbps.
/> “We are delighted to have Qualcomm join ETRI in the successful development of its 5G Standalone (SA) small cell software,” said Geraldo Giarreta, senior director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies. “We will continue to work with ETRI to lead the development of next-generation 5G small cell technology and accelerate the global deployment of 5G.”

IITP PM Choi Seong-ho said, “It is expected to be of great help in competitively commercializing small cell products from small and medium-sized enterprises, building 5G infrastructure, and utilizing various services such as 5G specialized networks.”