Intel announced the 5G Mobile Trial Platform will start to support the new non-standalone NR standard when available in the fourth quarter of 2017 for live tests and trials.
When the non-standalone NR specification is finalized, Intel will be ready to begin work with leading telecommunications equipment manufacturers (TEMs) to make sure the radio access network and the device side operate within the initial NR standard.
Qualcomm is yet to make any major progress in the 5G field at present as compared with Intel, which is also pursuing big deals in the IoT space.
“Intel will join with mobile operators to take non-standalone NR out of the lab and begin testing it in real-world situations,” said Asha Keddy is vice president, Client and Internet of Things Businesses and Systems Architecture, and general manager, Next Generation and Standards, at Intel.
Intel 5G Mobile Trial Platform is powered by Intel FPGAs and Intel Core processors. Now technology equipment manufacturers can test interoperability with devices sooner, telecom operators can take the platform into real-world situations earlier, and standards bodies can collect data for final specs faster.
Intel has tied up with technology companies such as Ericsson and Nokia and participated in 5G trials with telecom operators like AT&T, Korea Telecom, NTT Docomo and Verizon.
The full standalone 5G NR standard is expected at the end of 2018.
Earlier, Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group, revealed discuss AT&T’s involvement in the Intel Xeon Scalable processor early access program.
AT&T has seen 30 percent performance improvement over its current install base since deploying the Intel Xeon Scalable platform in March. AT&T has also seen a 25 percent reduction in the number of servers needed per cluster.
AT&T aims to achieve its goal of virtualizing 75 percent of its network by 2020 and reach 55 percent by the end of this year.
