5G was the hot topic at last week’s Mobile World Congress, with carriers and manufacturers of everything from laptops to smartphones showing off their plans and visions for a 5G future. A less flashy but arguably more important demonstration was made by National Instruments, who demonstrated their 5G New Radio (NR) sub-6GHz emulator as a solution to lower testing costs and improve time-to-market for carriers and modem and hardware manufacturers.

Testing hardware and software like the offerings from National Instruments are critical to getting 5G equipment to market, particularly while the technology and the adopted standards are so new. National Instruments’ emulator can be programmed to behave like different modems and simulate various RF conditions, allowing engineers to test their 5G equipment in a world that does not yet have 5G.

To show off their solution at Mobile World Congress, National Instruments partnered with Samsung to demonstrate NI’s test user equipment communicating with Samsung’s 5G NR 28GHz base station. The demonstration showed the test equipment connecting to the base station and validating the downlink quality and performance. For carriers and manufacturers alike, it was a hugely exciting peek into how NI’s technology will help push the progress of 5G and 5G equipment.

5G cellular networks may not be accessible to the masses just yet, but manufacturers are prepping for them so that consumers will have equipment that can take advantage of the new technology as soon as 5G lights up. Intel has announced that their XMM 8000 series 5G modems will be included in laptops and netbooks from Dell, HP, Lenovo and Microsoft by the second half of 2019.

Once carriers like AT&T and Verizon have deployed their 5G networks, users of products like netbooks that have 5G-capable modems like the XMM 8000 series will be able to take advantage of the superior speeds and latency that 5G will deliver. Intel plans to demo one of these devices at Mobile World Congress next week to show off the capabilities and hopefully encourage early adoption. It also seems likely that Intel may partner with phone manufacturers as well, pushing for their 5G modems to be used in future smartphones.

2019 is sure to be a race between both component manufacturers like Intel and hardware manufacturers to get 5G-capable devices in consumer’s hands. It will be exciting to see how the competition spurs development!

4K video streaming 5G test used 28 GHz spectrum

Earlier this month, inside a Nokia facility in Murray Hill, N.J., the network infrastructure vendor worked with Verizon and Qualcomm to complete what is being billed as the first over-the-air call based on 3GPP’s non-standalone 5G New Radio specification and using licensed millimeter wave spectrum.

Verizon, based on its acquisition of licenses previously held by XO Communications, has licensed millimeter wave spectrum holdings in the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands. This test used 28 GHz spectrum, according to Verizon spokesman John O’Malley, and transmitted a 4K video stream. “With the bandwidth 5G provides on millimeter wave spectrum, we felt 4K video was the best application to showcase the technology versus an over-the-top voice call,” O’Malley said in a statement to RCR Wireless News.