September 29th, 2020 – The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute and innovation cluster 5G Berlin, a non-profit organization promoting innovation around 5G key technologies, are starting to operate a 5G test field. The new trial ground is located in the heart of the city in Charlottenburg in the area surrounding the campus of the Technical University of Berlin. The project partners create a publicly accessible test field where companies and research institutions get the opportunity to develop and test innovative 5G applications and products. The trial ground operates independent from commercial 5G network providers. It comprises several base stations and displays all technology components needed for testing 5G applications. It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the project "Open Testbed Berlin - 5G and Beyond - OTB-5G+" (FKZ: 16KIS0979K).
The new test field aims at creating a comprehensive ecosystem for 5G applications and products. 5G Berlin member companies and participating research institutions can now benefit from attractive terms and conditions for collaborative or individual research and innovation testing. The focus is on topics such as Smart City, looking deeper into how to achieve steered traffic control with intelligent sensor technology. Another important field of research is the support of automated driving through novel assistance systems.
The test field also offers the possibility to try industrial campus networks for reliable radio-based control of industrial processes within factories. Furthermore, it serves as a development site for new network control methods that use artificial intelligence.
"The 5G test field is a great success for Berlin as a business location because it offers a solid 5G stand-alone network that does not require support from the LTE core network," says Professor Slawomir Stanczak, Head of the Department Wireless Networks at Fraunhofer HHI. "Companies and research institutions now have the unique opportunity to experiment extensively in the field of 5G technologies. By providing the test field, we want to generate essential findings to take digitization in Germany an important step forward and to positively impact our technological sovereignty".
"The joint infrastructure that has now been put into operation enables our member companies and research institutions to develop and test 5G key technologies for urban applications under real-life conditions," comments Carsten Rossenhoevel, board member of Innovation Cluster 5G Berlin and co-founder of the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC AG). "The flexible test environment operating independent from commercial networks is available to all members on an ongoing basis. It is a significant advantage for Berlin as a business location."
The test field uses 5G macro radio cells in combination with smaller radio cells for local, broadband and high-speed communication links. The radio cells use the 3.7 GHz band designed for the operation of campus networks in Germany. A transmission bandwidth of 80 MHz, beamforming and adaptive antenna technology with 64 elements, so-called multi-user MIMO, support the testing of applications with high demand concerning bandwidth and signal propagation times.
The Berlin-based company ng4T provided the 5G Core network software (5G Core). It supports application-specific quality settings, so-called network slicing, and the orchestration of network services. This allows for the emulation of multiple network instances, so that roaming between public networks and campus networks can be simulated. The integration of the core network and radio access network (5G RAN) was successfully tested with commercial end devices in view of 3GPP Release 15 SA.
About Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
Innovations for the digital society of the future are the focus of research and development work at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, HHI. In this area, Fraunhofer HHI is a world leader in the development for mobile and optical communication networks and systems as well as processing and coding of video signals. Together with international partners from research and industry, Fraunhofer HHI works in the whole spectrum of digital infrastructure – from fundamental research to the development of prototypes and solutions. www.hhi.fraunhofer.de
About Innovation Cluster 5G Berlin
The innovation cluster 5G Berlin provides a regional and national networking platform for startups, companies of all sizes, research institutions, universities and government agencies. The organization provides a test field with the objective to be utilized for joint research projects, the trial of 5G technologies and the development of new applications. Furthermore, it offers an information network to initiate new partnerships and drive knowledge transfer. http://www.5g-berlin.de
Das Innovationscluster 5G BERLIN wurde im Rahmen der Gemeinschaftsaufgabe „Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur” (GRW) mit Bundesmitteln und Mitteln des Landes Berlin, vertreten durch die Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Energie und Betriebe gefördert und durch die Senatsverwaltung kofinanziert.
Pressekontakt:
Martina Müller | martina.mueller@hhi.fraunhofer.de | +49 30 31002-242
Fachkontakt:
Prof. Slawomir Stanczak | slawomir.stanczak@hhi.fraunhofer.de | +49 30 31002- 875
Carsten Rossenhoevel | cross@eantc.de | Phone +49 30 3180595-21