Intel is ramping up its efforts on 5G, outlining three 5G focus areas – the industry partnerships, end-to-end 5G-related hardware and software development (such as Narrow Band IoT), and 5G standards-setting.
The company’s next generation and standards organisation 5G business and technology general manager, Rob Topol, said 5G is set to change the way the company operates and how the market responds to connectivity.
“We’re very excited about 5G as a company," he said.
"We have started research and development on it at a very early stage so that we can build prototypes that demonstrate many different use cases.
"5G is going to be something that will be a network change and a wireless change that will be much more than just about smartphones or other mobile devices.
"5G will be bringing together the connected requirements with increased needs for compute. As you bring those two together, 5G is going to open up many new use cases, opportunities like automotive or connected homes or industrial automation."
According to Topol, in heading down that path, Intel has been working on solutions and early prototypes that demonstrate that. He said it affects the network all the way through to Cloud.
“We want to deliver end-to-end requirements on 5G," he added.
Intel network platform group wireless access strategy and technology director, Caroline Chan, said Asia-Pacific and Japan poses great opportunity in terms of collaboration in the 5G space.
“We have been actively involved, from an infrastructure side, in partnerships and research. Going forward, this will be the foundation for the 5G platform,” she said.
Topol also said Intel’s goal is not to drive something that’s proprietary but to have a play that spans across multiple technologies and fields.
“Our approach is to do this collectively with the channel ecosystem. If you look across the early specifications of taskforces formed, our goal was to be a member of as many of them as possible so we can not only be involved in the early stages of trial but also help drive converged standards.”
“Our desire is open-sourced, standard-based product lines That is the best scenario for Intel,” he added.
Intel will also be working more collaboratively with spectrum policy and advocacy like governments and operators in the Asia-Pacific region to facilitate the use of 5G.
“As we start to lay that groundwork and know what’s best in terms of features that are needed in the marketplace, that’s when we can decide what sort of infrastructure build out to do in these countries,” Topol added.
