Fujitsu to Deliver Base Station Hardware to NTT DOCOMO with Aim of Commercial 5G Launch

Supporting 5G service with New Radio Access Technologies for base stations

Figure: Conventional base station that provides support for 5G
Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has agreed to provide NTT DOCOMO, INC. with base station hardware that it intends to commercialize, with an eye toward the launch of commercial service using new 5G radio technologies (5G)(1) in 2020.
In order to smoothly roll out 5G commercial services, NTT DOCOMO aims to deploy a 5G network using currently available equipment. In response to this effort, Fujitsu is supporting the deployment of a 5G network that can develop areas with the flexibility to simultaneously operate with 3G(2), LTE, and LTE-Advanced(3) networks. This will be primarily through changes to software, with the minimum number of hardware changes necessary to support 5G, using Fujitsu’s existing base station for 3G, LTE, and LTE-Advanced radio access technologies.
In addition to providing these base stations, Fujitsu will implement its strong suit of software-defined radio (SDR) technology(4), which enables different radio access technologies for the same hardware, to expand the functionality of software on existing base stations. This will contribute to the swift realization of a commercial 5G network, offering communication speeds that significantly exceed those of existing LTE and LTE-Advanced radio access technology.
Fujitsu will further strengthen its partnership with NTT DOCOMO and accelerate the development of base stations that support 5G. In tandem with this, Fujitsu will continue generating value for customers, taking into account the variety of ways they can put 5G to use, and promote technologies for its digital co-creation business on a global scale.
(1) 5G
An overall term for 3GPP 5th Generation New Radio (NR) technology. 5G refers to the newly established global standards for fifth generation mobile communication, established under the leadership of 3GPP (the 3rd Generation Partnership Project), a partnership project aimed at setting global standards for mobile communications, consisting of major global companies involved in the mobile communications business, including Fujitsu. The partners have agreed that global standards for the 5G technology should provide improvements such as higher speed, greater capacity, lower latency and higher reliability than existing LTE and LTE-Advanced, and initial standard specifications were completed in December 2017.
(2) 3G
An overall term for 3GPP 3rd Generation radio technology. The third generation of global mobile communication standards established by 3GPP.
(3) LTE and LTE-Advanced
Long Term Evolution and Long Term Evolution-Advanced. The fourth generation of global mobile communication standards established by 3GPP.
(4) Software defined radio (SDR) technology
Technology that can deploy and change wireless functionality through software operating on hardware.