An agreement to collaborate on advancing the development of 5G networks has been signed by Bell Labs, the industrial research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, and Technische Universität Dresden’s 5G Lab Germany.

Under the research collaboration agreement, the two organisations will develop and test technologies that will help to define the capability of 5G mobile networks in meeting the massive connectivity demands of the future, with the high-performance required by end-users.

Opened in September 2014, the 5G Lab Germany brings together 20 professors from the Technische Universität Dresden, one of the leading universities in Europe, with more than 500 scientists.

The 5G Lab Germany is a recognized technology consortium and industry leader in the collaborative effort required to develop and deliver 5G networks.

It comprises four separate tracks which allow members to focus on areas of interest, while providing a holistic view of 5G networks. As a new member of the 5G Lab Germany, Alcatel-Lucent will initially focus its research efforts on the Wireless & Networks track of the programme.

Prof. Gerhard Fettweis, Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications Systems at TU Dresden, running the university´s 5G Lab Germany, said: “With Alcatel Lucent’s system insights and know-how we can address the most relevant challenges in designing and operating highly reliable and resilient mobile networks. We investigate a theoretical framework that allows us to analyse waveforms, find performance bounds and find low-complexity designs for implementation.

"The second project targets on new access technologies as an enhancement of the dual-connectivity transmission approach and joint coordination among multiple radio access technologies to meet various service requirements.”

Tod Sizer, head of wireless research in Bell Labs, added: “Bell Labs is an industry leader in wireless innovation and research, and is working closely with customers, key government funded projects in Europe and with leading universities like TU Dresden to collectively define what 5G should and will be.

"Our history with TU Dresden goes even beyond the very early definition of 5G and now we are innovating together to enable low latency applications, higher capacity solutions, as well as support for both Massive MIMO and Massive numbers of connected machine devices.”

Alcatel-Lucent demonstrated its research on UF-OFDM at Mobile World Congress 2014 and 2015 and at the NGMN 2015 conference.

The digital multi-carrier modulation method used in today’s 4G LTE networks – OFDM – was optimised for smartphone traffic only. As the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communications brings a more diverse range of traffic, a new digital radio waveform is required that is more resilient to these types of connections, to maintain network performance and service quality in a 5G network. UF-OFDM is optimised for a combination of smartphone and the large volume of sensor-type traffic that will occur in 5G networks.

Under its Network 2020 vision, Bell Labs is committed to working with other industry-leaders to develop technologies that will define the future of 5G communications. The company has signed collaboration agreements with companies such as NTT Docomo, KT, Freescale, and more.

•Photo shows mobile phone mast.

Update news