New 5G Innovation Center at the University of Surrey

The University of Surrey’s 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) is the world’s largest academic research centre dedicated to next-generation wireless connectivity.

The 5GIC houses over 170 researchers and has attracted over £70 million of investment, including £12 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). It brings together leading academic expertise and major industry partners to define and develop a global 5G network that will radically change lives across the world.

4G network to be upgraded over time to incorporate new 5G technologies

The 5GIC’s new testbed facility will initially provide researchers with a fully-functioning 4G network, which will be upgraded over time to incorporate new 5G technologies. Researchers will use the test network to study and plan for the impact of new services and use cases for mobile networks, including 4K video and the Internet of Things.

To demonstrate the potential of the testbed, 5GIC researchers and partners recently unveiled a wireless technology performing mobile streaming of ultra-high definition video.

Developed in partnership with Huawei, BBC R&D and the 5GIC, ultra-high-definition (4k) video will be streamed to a mobile device over an enhanced outdoor mobile network, providing a first major step in delivering the expected capacity of 5G.

Professor Rahim Tafazolli explained: “Using evolved hardware and software, the demonstration showed the capabilities 5G could hold for bandwidth hungry applications such as ultra-high definition video on the move. This provides much higher quality, less compressed images than 4G/LTE, streamed to a mobile device or television.”

The 5G Innovation Centre partners

The 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) at the University of Surrey brings together leading academic expertise and key industry partners to develop the next generation of wireless technology, 5G. Partners include: EE, Huawei, O2, Vodafone, HEFCE, Enterprise M3, TEOCO Corporation, BBC, BT, Cobham, Anite, Ascom, Catapult Digital, Fujitsu, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung, Roke, McLaren Applied Technologies, Ofcom, Imagination Technologies, ITRI, MYCOM OSI, Three and Ordnance Survey.

More
articles