NI collaborates with CROWD to define 5G wireless communications

USA: NI announced its collaboration with CROWD, the European Union Framework Project 7 (EU FP7), to define next-generation wireless 5G communications.

CROWD researches the combination of small- and large-density cells in a heterogeneous wireless network for an efficient architecture in which small cells meet traffic hot-spot needs while large cells offer reliable coverage for high-mobility users.

“Current demand is barely supported by existing network infrastructure, so we need higher points of dense networks,” said James Kimery, director of RF, communications and software defined radio for NI. “However, network densification requires advanced self-organized network techniques to manage interference. The goal of CROWD is to develop higher layer algorithms to manage increased complexity due to densification.”

NI, one of seven collaborators in the CROWD consortium, leads the testbed activities within the EU FP7 CROWD research project in the domain of future communication and ICT services infrastructures.

An NI PXI chassis running FlexRIO FPGA modules, NI 5791 RF front-end modules and LabVIEW system design software provides the infrastructure for an LTE/WiFi testbed for conducting experiments to showcase software defined networking concepts proposed by various partners in the project.