Telecom industry will be attending the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019) in Barcelona next week expecting several announcements around 5G and IoT innovations.
The largest telecom event is happening at a time when there is wide-spread discussion about banning Huawei from 5G networks in several European countries under the influence of Donald Trump administration.
Attendees will seek innovations in 5G network roll outs, LTE expansion, fibre deployments, virtualization and IoT revenue generation in order to improve revenue and cut down on Opex and Opex during the distress phase.
5G network coverage is expected to reach 40 percent of the population, and will account for 1.5 billion subscriptions by 2024.
GSMA
Mobile IoT or Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks are available in licensed spectrum in 49 markets following 93 launches by 50 different mobile operators across both LTE-M and NB-IoT, said GSMA.
Mobile IoT coverage is expected to reach approximately 93 percent of the world’s largest IoT markets by Q2 2019, according to GSMA Intelligence. There will be 3.5 billion cellular IoT connections, including 1.9 billion licensed LPWA connections by 2025.
There have been 68 NB-IoT launches in 45 markets and 25 launches of LTE-M networks in 19 markets.
Altice NB-IoT in Portugal; Orange LTE-M in France and Romania; Telenor NB-IoT and LTE-M in Norway; Telia NB-IoT in Estonia, SFR NB-IoT in France; Swisscom NB-IoT and LTE-M in Switzerland and Vodafone NB-IoT in Malta are the latest additions in Europe in Q4 2018.
Grameenphone NB-IoT in Bangladesh; Chungwa LTE-M in Taiwan; Telkomsel NB-IoT in Indonesia; and Megafon and MTS NB-IoT Russia are the latest launches in Asia Pacific in Q4 2018.
Verizon and Spark launched LTE-M in North America and New Zealand respectively, while STC launched NB-IoT in Saudi Arabia and Telefonica launhed LTE-M in Argentina.
The GSMA Mobile IoT Innovators community has also reached 2,100 developers from more than 1,300 companies.
Gemalto
Gemalto announced the industry-first 5G SIM targeting 5G operators. The Gemalto 5G SIM brings improved data privacy and seamless 5G global roaming.
Gemalto 5G SIM will be available in all SIM form factors such as removable SIM, M2M SIM, eSIM, during the first half of 2019.
The 5G SIM will help 5G mobile operators to unleash 5G potential, maximize network investments, and simplify service deployment with backward compatibility to previous 3G/4G technology, said Emmanuel Unguran, EVP Mobile Services & IoT Business Unit, for Gemalto.
Aviat Networks
Aviat Networks announced the release of CTR 8740, a SDN ready IP/MPLS router for transport networks. The CTR 8740 transport router cuts the cost of routing when compared to standard routers. CTR 8740 removes the need for extra hardware in microwave or millimeter wave applications thus further lowering capital and operational expenses for customers, said Michael Pangia, president and CEO of Aviat Networks.
Extreme Networks
Extreme Networks will showcase its latest networking solutions showing the power of Wi-Fi 6, 5G and AI technology in driving business transformation in enterprise and mobile operator environments.
Polystar
Polystar announced that Solver, its virtual test solution for mobile networks, comes with support for the N2 interface, allowing end-to-end testing of the new 5G core network. This strengthens Solver’s current 5G test capabilities, such as support for testing 5G SBA and virtualised CUPS architectures, said Thomas Nilsson, CTO of Polystar.
Xilinx
Xilinx has extended its Zynq UltraScale Radio Frequency (RF) chip with more RF performance and scalability covering the entire sub-6 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum for 5G deployment.
Quectel Wireless
Quectel Wireless Solutions announced its commercial 5G IoT modules featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem and their antenna modules with integrated RF transceiver, RF Front-End (RFFE) and antenna elements from Qualcomm Technologies.
NTT DATA
NTT DATA has launched AW3D Telecom for 5G, a 3D digital map package that leverages satellite imagery for the planning of 5G wireless networks by telecom carriers, network vendors and IoT companies.
The new solution incorporates NTT DATA’s multi-view technology, which uses more than 10 images to calculate each elevation and an advanced machine-learning algorithm supported by artificial intelligence (AI) for image processing. It enables the capture of detailed objects, such as structures on building roofs and individual trees on streets, to build advanced datasets for highly precise 5G planning, said Katsuichi Sonoda, head of NTT DATA’s Social Infrastructure Solution Sector.
MaxLinear
MaxLinear will showcase its Wireless Access RF solutions targeting 5G networks. MaxLinear has developed innovative semiconductor building blocks targeting 5G infrastructure solutions in the areas of Radio Access deployment and capacity upgrade, wireless backhaul to the Core Network, power management for high-performance infrastructure equipment, and deployment of 5G Fixed Wireless Broadband services, said Gerry Leavey, MaxLinear Director of Marketing, Wireless Infrastructure Group.
Radisys
Radisys will demonstrate its 3GPP Release 15 compliant MobilityEngine 5G Software Suite that delivers to service providers a path to 5G with support for both Non-standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA) deployments.
Radisys and Foxconn will demonstrate a 5G connected video surveillance solution with facial recognition deployed at the intelligent edge for Smart Cities, said Natasha Tamaskar, vice president, Global Marketing and Sales Strategy, Radisys.
A10 Networks
A10 Networks has shipped the 100 Gbps virtual machine for 5G secure application services with the Thunder Convergent Firewall (CFW). The solution has already been adopted by a major telco provider in the Middle East for its 5G environment, said Yasir Liaqatullah, vice president of product management, A10 Networks.
Keysight
Ixia will present a 5G User Equipment (UE) Emulation Solution targeting network equipment manufacturers and solution providers. They can conduct testing of 5G base stations to ensure that devices and network services meet customer expectations for latency, reliability, and high-speed broadband, said Mark Pierpoint, president, Ixia Solutions Group, Keysight Technologies.
Sumix
Sumix announced an innovative technology for inspecting multi-fiber MPO connectors. The company’s Manta-W+ fiber inspection microscope solution offers automated inspection of Multi-Fiber Push-On connectors with analysis, and pass/fail testing by capturing all fiber terminations simultaneously, said Farhad Towfiq, Sumix President.
Ciena
Ciena announced WaveLogic 5 solution that will help reduce cost per bit and speed up ability to turn up services more efficiently.
The latest WaveLogic technology leapfrogs the nearest competitive offerings by delivering 50 percent more capacity per wavelength and up to 20 percent higher spectral efficiency.
The WaveLogic 5 solutions will begin to become available in the second half of 2019, said Scott McFeely, senior vice president of Global Products and Services, Ciena.
Syniverse
Syniverse has launched a 5G signaling service proof of concept that supports cross-network connectivity for the next billion things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and virtual reality (VR) possibilities, said John Wick, general manager, Service Provider Group, Syniverse.
Sequans
Sequans Communications announced the availability of a module compatible with Orange networks and based on Sequans’ Monarch, the world’s most highly-optimized LTE-M/NB-IoT chipset.
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks announced it will be supporting the next version of the Telefonica Spain Fusion Network project. Telefonica Spain will invest in several Juniper Networks solutions, including Juniper’s MX 10K Series, said Joaquin Mata, chief technology officer, Telefonica Spain.
Viavi Solutions
Viavi Solutions will showcase its Lab To Field 5G network testing and assurance portfolio in a live demonstration, said Oleg Khaykin, chief executive officer of VIAVI.
Keysight
Keysight will showcase innovative test solutions that accelerate 5G, IoT device and network innovation. Keysight 5G test solutions will target chipset and device manufacturers; 5G infrastructure makers; and 5G mobile operators.
Nokia
Nokia announced two additions to its AirScale small cells that extend the high performance of 5G both indoors and outdoors. A millimeter wave (mmWave) radio offers cost-effective 5G outdoor coverage of high traffic areas such as airports, stadiums and busy pedestrian zones.
The new 5G pico Remote Radio Head for the Nokia AirScale Indoor Radio System enables an upgrade of indoor coverage to 5G without replacing installed hardware, even in complex buildings such as hospitals and shopping malls, said Mark Atkinson, head of 5G and Small Cells of Nokia.
Airspan Networks
Airspan Networks will expand its tie up with Qualcomm to include the development of 5G NR mmWave RAN solutions, leveraging the Qualcomm FSM100xx 5G Platform, said Eli Leizerovitz, head of Products, Airspan Networks.
Intracom Telecom
Intracom Telecom has launched its Point-to-MultiPoint (PtMP) MW radio, WiBAS micro-BS for corporate and residential connectivity. Mobile operators and ISPs can benefit from the WiBAS micro-BS, an all-outdoor PtMP MW Base Station (BS) operating in the 28 GHz area-licensed band. This radio delivers IP connectivity for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks, said John Tenidis, marketing director of Intracom Telecom’s wireless solutions portfolio.
