Empowering the Next Generation 5G Platform
The Radio Access Network (RAN) and associated core network hierarchy, which connects end-user devices to central telecommunications networks and the cloud, is critical to building ubiquitous cellular connectivity, and will expand the use cases that the technology supports number and breadth. When developing and implementing a strategy for developing and implementing 5G RAN and core equipment, having a deep understanding of the requirements of 5G and understanding where, how and when the technology will evolve can help manage expectations.
This paper provides an overview of the current state of 5G standards and promotion, summarizes the new application scenarios that 5G RAN needs to support, and studies the evolution of the standard to support higher bandwidth and more application scenarios. Finally, the article explains how developers can leverage Achronix field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to address their fundamental challenge—offloading part of the processing workload from the CPU in a cost, power and area saving way Offload to FPGA-based accelerators, enabling optimization of 5G RAN architectures.
