Press Release

[Hong Kong, 30 June 2016] Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) and Huawei are pleased to announce that the international standard meeting of 3GPP RAN4 #79AH has been successfully concluded today (30 Jun 2016).

The 3-day meeting was held from 28 to 30 June and drew the participation of around 60 delegates from global telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers, mobile terminals and chipset vendors including China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Vodafone, Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Intel, Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Samsung, MediaTek, LG Electronics, Sony and NEC and etc., who shared the common objectives of facilitating the standardisation progress of Narrow Band IOT (NB-IOT) and LTE-Advanced timely.

After three days’ intensive and fruitful meetings, several important outcomes and remarkable results have been achieved in the topics including BS RF conformance testing, radio resource management (RRM) and demodulation performance for NB-IOT; user equipment (UE) RRM, demodulation and channel state information (CSI) reporting for licensed-assisted access to unlicensed spectrum (LAA); and elevation beamforming/full-dimension multi-input multi-output (MIMO) for UE demodulation in LTE-Advanced.

Mr. Xutao Zhou, Chairman of 3GPP RAN4 remarked, “We are very grateful that ASTRI hosted this important meeting in 3GPP NB-IOT and LTE-Advanced standardisation together with Huawei. ASTRI has paid a lot of efforts to prepare for this meeting and ensure its smooth running which contribute to its success. Delegates from around the world have achieved significant consensus during the meeting, and had an enjoyable stay in Hong Kong.”

Dr. Frank Tong, Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI said, “It is indeed ASTRI’s honour to host this meaningful meeting with Huawei. We are pleased that the meeting has achieved substantial progress. This will definitely make an impact on the current definition of 5G network and facilitate the development of Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart City.”

3GPP RAN4 #79AH meeting was co-hosted by ASTRI and Huawei. It is the first time for ASTRI to hold the 3GPP RAN4 meeting and it is the first time this meeting is held in Hong Kong in its history.

The 3GPP RAN4 #79AH meeting co-hosted by ASTRI and Huawei has been successfully concluded.

[Hong Kong, 29 June 2016] Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) showcases its enabling technologies for “5G Experience for Smarter City”, including the (1) Virtual Reality Solution over the newly developed Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) platform, (2) FastCloud Orchestrator and (3) End-to-end Centralized and Coordinated Radio Access Network (C-RAN) solution at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2016 in Shanghai, China.

1. Mobile Edge Computing + Virtual Tour Solution

ASTRI will demonstrate its first proof of concept (PoC) prototype for Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for LTE networks. MEC technology provides a computing platform to host services to mobile users near mobile base stations, without going via the mobile backhaul and core network (EPC). MEC allows optimization of the latency, bandwidth, and radio network resources to enable unique applications, such as IoV, virtual reality.

In this demonstration, with core competence in TD-LTE, network function virtualization (NFV), mobile core network (EPC), and virtual reality (VR), ASTRI builds MEC prototype with virtual tour service running on top. Benefit from the low latency, high bandwidth and reliable connection provided by MEC and LTE, an immersive virtual reality experience can be demonstrated because the virtual tour service can track the 3-dimension head movement in real time.

2. FastCloud Orchestrator

ASTRI will also demonstrate new generation of FastCloud orchestrator based on Intel Open Network Platform (ONP) which can deploy and reconfigure end-to-end virtualized LTE networks in a visualized manner. ASTRI’s FastCloud orchestrator provides a template based design tool that allows planning and design the LTE network before launch. With just a few clicks, an end-to-end LTE network can be deployed in just a few minutes. ASTRI’s FastCloud Orchestrator greatly facilitates the network deployment compared with the traditional non-virtualized network deployment.

3. C-RAN reference design

ASTRI’s C-RAN reference design is our next generation small cells supporting centralized and coordinated RAN processing. Equipped with virtualization framework (e.g. open-stack), the reference design is highly flexible to be integrated with any mobile edge applications, such as indoor positioning, low latency virtual reality, content caching and so on. ASTRI’s Baseband Unit (BBU) pool design has (1) high capability, supporting >96 cells with full capacity loading; (2) high performance, supporting distributed MIMO with baseband join scheduling/processing; (3) high flexibility, supporting inter and intra cell coordination, cell aggregation and flexible MAC/PHY partitions. In this demonstration, ASTRI has realized a cost effective and delay insensitive partition where the L3 and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) are centralized. This design is low cost and very suitable for large scale deployment such as railway and Vehicular to Infrastructure (V2I) applications.

The demonstration is at ASTRI booth (N1. F60) at MWC Shanghai, 2016, being held at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre (SNIEC), Shanghai, China from 29 June to 1 July 2016.

ASTRI showcases its enabling technologies for “5G Experience for Smarter City” at Mobile World Congress Shanghai .

[Hong Kong, 28 June 2016] Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) and Huawei co-host the international standard meeting of 3GPP RAN4 #79AH at Hong Kong Science Park from 28^th to 30^th June 2016. It is the first time this meeting is held in Hong Kong in its history.

The 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a global collaboration of telecommunications associations. The scope of 3GPP includes the development and maintenance of standards of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced. The 3GPP specification work is done in Technical Specification Groups (TSGs) and Working Groups (WGs). Radio Access Network (RAN) Work Group (WG) 4 works on the radio frequency (RF) parameters and base station (BS) conformance, and derives the requirements for transmission and reception parameters, and for channel demodulation.

Attended by delegates from global telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers, mobile terminals and chipset vendors including China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Vodafone, Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT),  Intel, Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Samsung, MediaTek, Spreadtrum, LG Electronics, Sony and NEC, to name but a few, this meeting is expected to achieve important progress and extensive consensus on Narrowband IOT (NB-IOT) and LTE-Advanced standardisation, thereby contributing to migration to 5G and development of NB-IOT as well as Smart City.

The key topics of this 3-day meeting will cover BS RF conformance testing, radio resource management (RRM) and demodulation performance for NB-IOT; user equipment (UE) RRM, demodulation and channel state information (CSI) reporting for licensed-assisted access to unlicensed spectrum (LAA); and elevation beamforming/full-dimension multi-input multi-output (MIMO) for LTE UE demodulation in LTE-Advanced.

The 3GPP is vital for the network migration from 4G to 5G. The discussion outcomes will have significant impacts on the 5G network development direction which will contribute to evolution on the Smart City development. NB-IOT technology enables a range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications in Smart City such as smart metering, smart parking, vending machine, to name but a few.  ASTRI strives to develop R&D projects in the area of information and communications technologies (ICT). ASTRI is also working on R&D projects on NB-IOT technology and initiatives that will contribute to the development of Smart City that benefits the general public.

Delegates from global telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers, mobile terminals and chipset vendors attend the international standard meeting of 3GPP RAN4 #79AH.