Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. unveiled its latest research milestones and innovations for advancing the next chapter of 5G. The new and updated R&D over-the-air (OTA) testbeds and system simulations display Qualcomm Technologies’ continued leadership in enhancing the 5G system foundation to bring even more capacity, wider coverage, and lower latency to mobile operators and devices on a global scale. The testbeds and system simulations also highlight 5G’s horizontal capabilities to transform a wide range of industries from industrial IoT, automotive, enterprise, and more.

“Qualcomm Technologies is committed to driving the mobile ecosystem forward by breaking technology barriers and bringing superior 5G system performance to new industries, use cases and experiences for the smartphone and beyond,” said John Smee, vice president, engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our new 5G R&D technology OTA testbeds and system simulations build on more than 30 years of deep wireless technology expertise, end-to-end system knowledge, global experience, and exemplify our leadership in advancing 5G for the next decade.”

Why It’s Important: Qualcomm Technologies’ latest research shows the growth of new 5G devices, deployments, and applications across wireless technology, edge cloud processing, and AI. These prototypes underscore Qualcomm Technologies’ commitment to ongoing research and development of future 5G technologies and beyond.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

The new prototypes include:

• Strengthening wide-area 5G system foundation: Qualcomm Technologies’ latest wide-area 5G over-the-air (OTA) test networks, prototypes, and system simulations illustrate new capabilities and efficiencies of the 5G system. The latest demonstrations are focused across five key wide-area 5G research topics including subband half-duplex, wide-area 5G positioning, cross-node machine learning, 5G NR-Light evolution with sidelink, and 5G device disaggregation.
• Expanding mobile mmWave deployments and applications: Qualcomm Technologies was a pioneer in mmWave technology, and our groundbreaking research continues. New mmWave OTA prototypes and system simulations are exemplified in five key areas such as smart mmWave repeaters, machine learning-based beam prediction, network topology optimization, mmWave IoT expansion, and mmWave in smart factories. These demos  showcase how 5G mmWave is evolving to support even better performance, deployment efficiency and expanded use.
• Driving forward to safer, smarter transportation with 5G V2X sidelink: Qualcomm Technologies’ automotive vision  for 5G V2X (vehicle-to-everything) is to bring increased road safety by connecting cars to other cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, road infrastructure and more. This new 5G Rel-16 aligned R&D prototype further drives the 5G V2X sidelink evolution for delivering enhanced network capacity by offloading high-bandwidth data such as local high-res 3D maps from wide-area 5G networks, as well as bringing more robust communication with distributed time synchronization to maintain communication even when GNSS is unavailable.
• Enabling new Industry 4.0 efficiencies: Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G over-the-air industrial test beds illustrate key features pushing the technology boundaries of 5G which sets the foundation for Industry 4.0. Examples of advanced technologies showcased are time sensitive networking (TSN) with micro-second level time synchronization, ultra-high reliability with coordinated multi-point (CoMP), indoor precise positioning with centimeter level accuracy, and the novel introduction of sidelink to industrial IoT for more efficient device-to-device communication.
• Unlocking the future human interface with boundless XR over 5G mobile mmWave: Driving the convergence of physical, digital, and virtual worlds, boundless XR ushers in more immersive mobile virtual and augmented reality experiences through 5G and distributed computing. This demonstration, using Qualcomm Technologies’ optimized end-to-end 5G mmWave OTA system, showcases efficient simultaneous support of multiple virtual reality users across diverse applications, such as workplace collaboration and gaming.
• Delivering better system efficiencies for greener networks: With mobile networks growing to support wider bandwidths, denser deployments, and more users, Qualcomm Technologies’ researchers are also pursuing greener networks, including new advanced techniques, such as digital post distortion and high-efficiency modulation schemes that can greatly reduce the energy consumption of a mobile network system while sustaining high performance data links.

‍