Xilinx and China Mobile collaborate on virtualized 5G wireless networks
"China Mobile has been working on new technologies like large scale antenna systems (LSAS) and cloud RAN virtualization (C-RAN) for several years. The realization of those new technologies requires a new level of flexibility and scalability that only all programmable platforms can offer," said Bill Huang, general manager of China Mobile Research Institute.
In current cellular networks, subscribers at the edge of cells often experience poor service quality due to interference. 5G base stations will employ a large number of antennas to minimize the overall interference and improve both the user experience and network efficiency. Additionally, 5G wireless networks will include multiple radio access technologies that must coexist. As a result, network function virtualization (NFV) becomes a requirement for 5G, with hardware being abstracted and resources allocated dynamically for the required wireless functions.
Xilinx’s unique All Programmable devices, design tools and methodologies are key enablers for virtualization technology. In particular, the company’s innovations in partial reconfiguration (PR) allow equipment designers to create designs that can be altered in-system without interrupting the equipment operation. For example, new air interface waveforms can be switched in and out at speed to provide a cost effective alternative to building support for all air interface standards, saving power, cost and increasing system performance. Additionally, Xilinx® devices offer the industry’s highest DSP performance to support massive MIMO along with high speed SerDes to move large amounts of data between equipment types.
"5G wireless network systems will be extremely complex, requiring tremendous signal processing power and high speed connectivity, and the realization of hardware virtualization. This can only be enabled through innovations in silicon, software and IP," said Sunil Kar, vice president of Wireless Communications at Xilinx.
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