Base Station

As part of 5G Base Station, the required hardware and the software are being developed

The 5G base station forms the radio access network (RAN) part of the 5G system. The base station is connected to the core network on one side on an IP network and the user equipment (cell phones) on the radio side. Its primary responsibility is to modulate the data from the core network into appropriate waveforms and transmit over the allocated spectrum to the multiple users connected to it. It is also responsible for receiving the signals from the users, multiplex it appropriately and transmit to the core network for further processing. While the core network is responsible for user authentication and registration, the RAN is responsible for reliable communications by effective and correct use of spectrum.

5G base station consists of the following high-level sub-systems.

  1. Base band unit (BBU)
  2. Remote Radio head (RRH)
  3. Antennas

One of the specialities of 5G is the disaggregation of the BBU and the RRH, particularly as defined by the ORAN protocol. In this project all the systems are built in compliance with the 3GPP specification and the hardware is designed to operate outdoors. From a high level the 5G base station supports Massive MIMO and mmWave radio interfaces.  The following table describes the partners involved in the development of the RAN part of the base station.