Arm Ltd. today detailed a new initiative to advance the development of 5G technologies and disclosed that the project has the support of several major chipmakers, as well as other market players. 

The initiative will see the company team up with Tech Mahindra Ltd. to establish a new Arm 5G Solutions Lab. The lab will provide a technology test environment where hardware makers, software providers and cloud operators can demonstrate new networking solutions. Arm also envisions companies collaborating with each other on 5G projects. 

Tech Mahindra, the company with which Arm is partnering to launch the 5G Solutions Lab, is a publicly traded provider of information technology services. It plays an important role in the carrier ecosystem. The company works with tech firms that make 5G products, as a research and development partner, and also provides system integration services to carriers upgrading their networks from previous-generation LTE technology. 

The context behind Arm’s plan to set up a hub for industry collaboration around 5G is that the technology is set to change significantly how carriers operate their networks. One key changes is that, with 5G, carriers can implement a new approach to network operations known as Open RAN. Arm’s lab could help expand adoption of the approach.

The RAN in Open RAN stands for radio access network, the industry term for a carrier’s cell towers. Historically, carriers would buy most of the components necessary to build cell towers from a single supplier, which limited their technology options. Open RAN concept makes it possible to mix and match products from multiple suppliers, an approach that could enable network operators to build their infrastructure more efficiently than before.  

For mixing and matching different 5G components to become practical, technology suppliers  will have to ensure their products interoperate. That’s a requirement the Arm 5G Solutions Lab could help the industry meet. Having a hub for industry collaboration where different companies, including both hardware and software suppliers, can work together to ensure their products work well with one another could help advance Open RAN adoption.

Arm says the initiative is supported by Nvidia Corp., NXP Semiconductors N.V and Qualcomm Inc., which has in recent quarters been actively expanding its 5G product portfolio. Google LLC’s cloud business is participating as well, along with more than a half-dozen other hardware makers, software firms and carriers. 

That the lab is being launched by Arm underscores the company’s key role in the 5G ecosystem. Its chip designs are used in many of the 5G carrier hardware solutions on the market. A big portion of the smartphones and tablets that connect to carriers’ 5G networks use Arm-based silicon, too.  

“This has been a milestone year in the adoption of 5G,” Chris Bergey, senior vice president and general manager of Arm’s infrastructure business, wrote in a blog post today. “Commercial 5G networks are now live in more than 60 markets around the world. On top of that, the number of 5G connections is expected to reach 692 million globally by the end of this year. This is only the beginning and in the coming years more infrastructure will be required to achieve the true potential of 5G, the majority of which will be powered by Arm-based chips.”

Another focus of the Arm 5G Solutions Lab will be encouraging the implementation of emerging 5G use cases. Arm’s Bergey listed small cell and cloud-native RAN Intelligence Controller projects among the use cases that the new lab will aim to encourage. Both are poised to become important elements of 5G networks.

Small cells are miniature cell towers that are helping carriers create new revenue streams in the enterprise market. Carriers are using the technology to let corporate customers set up dedicated 5G networks at locations such as factories. A 5G network can provide faster performance than more standard connectivity options, such as Wi-Fi, which simplifies tasks such as wirelessly exchanging data between factory robots.

RAN Intelligence Controller technology, another item that Arm expects to appear on the lab’s agenda, is an important software component of carriers’ infrastructure. The software is responsible for coordinating many of the systems that make up a 5G network and also helps optimize their performance.

“The Arm 5G Solutions Lab serves as a confluence where software and hardware developers, operators, and cloud service providers can come together to define KPIs, blueprints and deployment guides to help bring innovations in 5G alive and ultimately, generate revenue faster,” Bergey wrote. “We envision the Lab as a catalyst for the Arm ecosystem to develop and deploy a 5G network infrastructure that leverages the inherent benefits of performance, power, and cost of the Arm architecture.”

Arm plans to launch the lab in early 2022. 

Image: Arm