CommAgility unveils 5G small cell standalone reference platform
Wireless Telecom Group’s CommAgility brand has introduced an indoor 5G small cell standalone gNodeB reference platform. The SC-RF2-5Gn78 combines the company’s SmallCellPHY-5G and SmallCellStack-5G software along with its baseband and RF hardware based on NXP’s Layerscape and Layerscape Access SoCs. This solution is pre-integrated and tested to reduce risk and effort.
The SC-RF2-5Gn78 includes two high-quality, flexible, 40MHz bandwidth RF channels, supporting 2×2 MIMO downlink operation. Based on NXP’s Layerscape and Layerscape Access processors, the platform combines 16 Arm Cortex-A72 cores with NXP VSPA DSP cores, security and wireless accelerators. Future upgrades will support greater bandwidths and more channels, giving higher throughput, says CommAgility. As a collaboration partner with NXP for its Layerscape Access processors, CommAgility can provide support to others developing and deploying 5G products using the NXP platform. CommAgility says it can also customise its 5G software to help simplifiy development, cut time to market and reduce risk.
CommAgility software is deployed in various 5G technology development projects including 5G mmWave repeaters, 5G base stations and small cells, US Department of Defense 5G research projects and private network deployment. The new platform offers a 5G gNodeB basestation which can be used as a complete small cell solution.
“The SC-RF2-5Gn78 provides a 5G small cell development platform that can significantly cut time-to-market, reduce risk, and form the basis of a final product design,” said Edward Young, senior vice-president and managing director at CommAgility. “These capabilities, shown in previous end-to-end connectivity demonstrations using our 5G Reference gNodeB, SmallCellPHY-5G and SmallCellSTACK-5G software, have enabled our current 5G customers to accelerate their development and deployment of 5G solutions.”
The CommAgility software portfolio for 5G NR development includes pre-ported and validated PHY and Stack software, a 5G core, and physical layer reference chains. This simplifies the development of 5G small cells and private networks, with the software’s flexible architecture making integration easier with hardware accelerators and libraries. Versions are available for 5G gNodeB and UE product developers. As well as the SC-RF2-5Gn78, CommAgility also offers the 5G Reference gNodeB, a pre-integrated reference design.
