Ericsson and LG Uplus collaborate on IoT and 5G development

Ericsson and LG Uplus have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of 5G and Internet of Things technologies, including narrow band LTE.

The Ericsson-LG agreement will initially run until 2020 as the two companies aim to jointly develop 5G and IoT platforms. Four areas of development will be covered: IoT infrastructure, including narrow-band LTE; software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) at the core of 5G networks ready; global content delivery networks (CDNs) and IoT-Advanced technologies.

Ericsson and LG Uplus will agree on technology and frequency strategies and prepare a roadmap for long-term network development. They will cooperate on research, testing, result sharing and the development of technology and equipment.

“We will prepare for the 5G era with our network management know-how and Ericsson’s strong technological power,” said Kim Suntae, chief technology officer of LG Uplus.

“The potential benefits that 5G could bring can only be realised through a strong industry ecosystem,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, Ericsson’s chief technology officer, Ericsson.

Meanwhile, Huawei has released a paper, NB-IoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) which makes the case for cheaper equipment in the low power wide area (LPWA) market. The proposal, approved by standards body 3GPP, could help to provide extended indoor coverage while supporting a wider selection of cheap devices for tasks involving low throughput.

Increasing numbers of operators have asked for the scope of narrow band cellular IoT working practices to be defined, according to Huawei, which says it has made ‘significant investment’ in the design of an NB-IoT system prototype. The technology is to be used by partners such as Veolia, Kamstrup and Fiorentini for applications such as smart metering, smart parking and other telemetry applications.

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