Communication platforms are centre stage and undergoing constant evolution. Here, we take a behind the scenes look at the technologies that are top of mind for R&D experts.
The cross-disciplinary nature of communications platforms is a driver for multiple, disruptive or semi-disruptive changes in the market; and technological developments in areas such as radio technology, computational hardware and security will all feature prominently in the future look of comms platforms. "With the 4G evolution, and even more with soon-to-be 5G, mobile radio technology takes a big leap onto higher frequency spectrum with advanced concepts such as massive MIMO and cooperative transmission," commented Björn Ekelund (pictured), Research Director, Device Technology and Ecosystem, Ericsson.
Ekelund highlighted that computational hardware continues to beat Moore's law using new interconnect topologies and advanced parallel architectures. "With the development of new semiconductor technology, radio hardware becomes dramatically more broadband and more digital," he added. "Security technology faces the challenges of not only quantum computing but also the rapidly growing value of data and massive system complexities. On top of this, new concepts are making their entrance on the industrial scene such as block chain. And software continues to demonstrate higher and higher levels of intelligence making it possible to use it in new areas and on bigger data sets."
As an ICT company with both product and service offerings, Ericsson's focus is broad, but the advent of 5G communications technology is one of its main areas of R&D investment. "Since 5G is targeting both humans (smartphones and mobile broadband) and non-humans (the IoT) we also invest in applications for the industrial and societal use of ICT technology," added Ekelund. "But to make a world class communications platform you need to excel in all disciplines - hardware, software, interconnect, transmission, mechanics, energy, antennas and so on. And we invest accordingly."
Ericsson also places a high priority on sustainability. This drives further innovation in virtually all technical areas. Another area of interest is 'wonder material' graphene. "Being a member of the Graphene Flagship we of course have big hopes for this exciting new material," added Ekelund. "We can see applications in many diverse areas such as photonics, electronics and antennas, but we also have realistic expectations. It will still be some time before we see graphene in such products."
ShoreTel is primarily a software company, but graphene could be used in its electronics, such as switches and endpoints for thermal dissipation, according to Eugenia Corrales, Senior Vice President for Product at ShoreTel. "Of great interest is the fact graphene has a 95 per cent solar efficiency, so maybe solar applications are the most immediate priority," she said.
Graphene will surely play a critical role in future communications, just as open source is becoming an integral part of business applications today. For example, Linux and Hadoop are revolutionary, and multi-vendor solutions can ensure interoperability with key functions such as CRM and ERP, noted Corrales. "We will continue to see increased adoption of cloud-based technology to create greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness for our customers," she said. "Furthermore, mobile-first development leverages the fact that mobile devices are now the dominant vehicle for businesses, changing the way we do transactions permanently."
Corrales also noted that innovation is being seen in modular design, which allows a customer to select only the functionality they need today while having the flexibility to build new capabilities later. "Real-time improvements enable customers to get new features and capabilities faster," she commented. "Added to this, a rich community of contributors from different industries, regions and specialities will enable customers to integrate best-in-class capabilities."
There are four broad technology areas that are shaping the future of communications, according to Peter Kim, Vice President Research and Development at Ericsson-LG Enterprise. These are 5G mobile connectivity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual or Augmented Reality and the IoT. "5G offers over 100 times faster speed than 4G and enables 4K/8K Ultra High Definition (UHD) transmission and Virtual Reality services including 3D hologram," he said.
"Artificial Intelligence can be converged with communications, and Virtual/Augmented Reality makes it possible to share richer information and enable tele-experience communications. Furthermore, the IoT widens the scope of communication from human-to-human to human-to-machine and machine-to-machine. This will have a profound change on the way we live our lives both professionally and privately."
In terms of Ericsson-LG's R&D the shift from hardware to software is mostly complete and the focus now is on virtualisation and the cloud. "We have adopted a cloud-first strategy in that everything we now do is prioritised for cloud deployment," added Kim. "From a client perspective our focus is on WebRTC which forms part of our mobile integration strategy. We are also investing in developing technologies that can help make the mobile device a seamless part of the enterprise ecosystem. Security is increasingly a concern, and another area we are investing in is of course IoT."•