5G interoperability tests using Alef Mobitech’s mobile edge platform

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Several major tech companies and an unnamed global mobile carrier have declared their tests of 5G interoperability a success.  Alef Mobitech‘s mobile edge platform for the technology can be “reliably deployed into national mobile networks as a seamless, transparent overlay on their existing 4G infrastructure,” Alef says. HP, Cisco, Nokia, Huawei, Dell and Ericsson conducted the tests with Alef and a “tier-one global mobile carrier” that remains anonymous.

Editor’s Note:

Alef Mobitech, launched in 2013, is a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) products and services provider. Alef is transforming the Mobile Internet through its MEC platform.  The company has offices in New Jersey. India and Brazil.

Alef Mobitech provides value-added services at the edge of the mobile network. Mobile edge computing allows us to physically locate products and services closer to users. Alef makes your network faster and more responsive. New and existing networks benefit from our edge architecture. We provide market differentiation and new revenue opportunities to mobile carriers and developers.

Key Alef characteristics:

  • Offers a first-of-its-kind MEC Platform that allows applications and network services to work in tandem.
  • Utilizes optimized mobility at the Radio Edge to provide a richer, more responsive and relevant delivery of multi-media applications.
  • Simplifies distribution and delivery across multiple markets.
  • Through key partnerships, these applications will benefit from a speedier and richer mobile internet experience.
  • Reduces complexity and enhances speed to market via a Managed Service offering. Creates a more immersive, interactive, and intelligent Mobile Internet.

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The tests, which used Alef’s edge computing platform, were completed across New Jersey, Sao Paulo, and Mumbai.  According to Alef, the tests show its platform can be “reliably deployed into national mobile networks as a seamless, transparent overlay on their existing 4G infrastructure”.

“The interoperability testing included standard billing interfaces — both pre-paid and post-paid, for voice and data services — and a comprehensive revenue assurance test regimen,” Alef said.

“Alef also demonstrated comprehensive interconnects with existing operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning systems … throughout all of this testing, zero changes to the existing infrastructure were required.”

The announcement followed Samsung, Ericsson, and Nokia last week syncing their 5G equipment in partnership with SK Telecom in Korea, interoperating Samsung’s 5G Non-standalone (NSA) switchboard with Ericsson and Nokia’s 5G base stations.

In July, Huawei, Intel, and China Mobile also worked on 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT), which they said would help accelerate the commercialisation of 5G networking equipment globally.

Intel and Huawei had in February used Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 to conduct the world’s first 5G NR over-the-air interoperability public demonstration after Huawei had announced partnering with Intel on interoperability trials based on 3GPP standards back in September 2017.

At the end of December, Ericsson kicked off 5G interoperability trials with Australian mobile carrier Telstra; United States carriers T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T; Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo; Korean carrier SK Telecom; and European carriers Vodafone and Orange, as well as smartphone chip giant Qualcomm.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/5g-mobile-edge-tests-completed-by-global-tech-giants/

 

 

 

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2 thoughts on “5G interoperability tests using Alef Mobitech’s mobile edge platform”

  1. The Ericsson CTO identified enhanced mobile broadband and fixed wireless as amongst the first 5G bright spots for Ericsson. “The beauty of fixed wireless,” he told Light Reading Thursday, is that it lessens the need for fiber. With wide carriers (radio channels) and narrow beams (i.e., beamforming) — “spotlight beams” as Ekudden calls them — able to deliver multi-megabit to gigabit speeds, high-speed and efficient fixed wireless is now possible, where it wasn’t before, Ekudden said.

    Want to know more about 5G? Check out our dedicated 5G content channel here on
    Light Reading.
    “It’s now financially and technically viable,” the CTO said, particularly as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 5G New Radio (5G NR) specs make it possible to use the same infrastructure for both fixed and mobile 5G services. According to the CTO, high-band 5G equipment could deliver a high-speed data connection from a small cell sited 200-300 feet from antennas installed at customers’ homes. In this scenario, an operator such as Verizon would save money by serving multiple premises without having to dig up the customers’ front yards for a cable run.

    “I’m not advocating universal build-out of fixed [wireless 5G],” Ekudden hastens to add. “There are fewer operators that are planning for fixed wireless.”

    But in the US, both Verizon and T-Mobile US Inc. have launched — or are planning to launch — 5G home broadband services (using fixed wireless capabilities) along with mobile 5G services. Mobile services are expected in the first of 2019 for T-Mobile, and “sometime” in 2019 for Verizon. (See T-Mobile: 6 of Top 10 US Markets Ready for Our 5G in 2019.)

    Ericsson, like its vendor rivals, is also expecting the Internet of Things to be a massive part of the 5G age: Ericsson is predicting there will be 3.5 billion “cellular IoT” devices in use by 2023. That’s a big number, but not as ambitious as many other predictions seen for 5G and IoT.

    “Most of that number is China,” explains the CTO.

    The low-power, wide-area aspect of 5G can be supported now. Technologies like narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) or Cat M LTE can be used “in-band” in 3GPP-compliant 5G NR deployments. A crucial part of the industry vision for “Critical IoT,” however, won’t be able to be supported until the end of 2019 with NR/Phase 2 (Release 16), which means the earliest commercial equipment will become available sometime in 2020.

    This “ultra reliable low latency” upgrade for Release 16 is crucial for the millisecond latency needed for everything from self-driving cars, to automated product lines, to supporting more sophisicated thin client devices. Like rival Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), Ericsson is gearing up for this IoT industrial sector to be a money-spinner for the company in 5G — just not yet. (See Nokia Reveals Future X Network Project.)

    https://www.lightreading.com/mobile/5g/ericssons-cto-talks-up-5g-opportunities/d/d-id/747436?

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