5G network equipment manufacturers | 5G Equipment Vendors

This page mentions 5G network equipment manufacturers or vendors which covers list of 5G Base station, 5G antenna array, 5G core equipment etc. Top manufacturers of 5G network equipments are Altiostar, Cisco Systems, Datang Telecom/Fiberhome, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and ZTE.

What is 5G NR ?

This cellular standard is developed by 3GPP and follows 4G LTE technology. 5G NR refers to Fifth Generation New Radio standard. The 5G NR specifications are defined in 38 series release 16 and beyond by 3GPP group.

The frequency bands are mainly categorized into below 6 GHz and above 6GHz parts. The spectrum can be licensed, Shared or unlicensed bands.

In phase-1, 5G NR operates in non-standalone mode in which control operations are taken care by 4G LTE eNB where as data transfer takes place in 5G mode (between 5G gNB and UE). In phase-2, 5G NR operates in standalone mode where in control and data messages are exchanged between 5G gNB (i.e. base station) and 5G UE (User Equipment or Mobile device).

5G NR offers enhanced data speed, ultra low latency and massive MTC to support numerous IoT devices. Refer 5G NR Numerology >> for more information on 5G NR physical layer parameters and 5G NR Frame structure >>.

As defined in 3GPP TS 38.300, 5G NR network consists of NG RAN (Next Generation Radio Access Network) and 5GC (5G Core Network). As shown, NG-RAN composed of gNBs (i.e. 5G Base stations) and ng-eNBs (i.e. LTE base stations). The figure-1 depicts overall architecture of 5G NR system and its components.

figure-2 depicts protocol stack layers in 5G gNB and its interfaces with other 5G core network components (i.e. AMF, UPF) and its peer gNB.

5G Network Equipment Manufacturers

Following table mentions 5G Network Equipment manufacturers with part numbers and technical features.

5G Network Equipment manufacturers	Description with part numbers
Altiostar, MA, USA	• Altiostar vRAN software solution offers products at baseband, radio and network management levels. • Website : https://www.altiostar.com/ • Email : info@altiostar.com
Cisco Systems	• Solution : Cisco 5G Transport solution • Designed to support software defined 5G mobile network to support enhanced data rate, ultra low latency and massive ioT. • Products include NCS 540 fronthaul routers, NCS 500 series, NCS 5500 series and ASR 9000 series. • Website : https://www.cisco.com
Datang Telecom ( Acquired by Fiberhome )	• The merger offers end to end network in 5G era. • It offers C-V2X OBU/RSU and chip level modules as per 3GPP specifications. • Datang Telecom Group, also known as CATT (i.e. China Academy of Telecommunications Technology) is as key contributor to 5G technology standardization.
Ericsson	• The company offers complete 5G Radio System which is used to build 5G RAN (Radio Access Network) to make 5G frequency waves available for 5G users. • The product called Ericsson 5G Radio Dot offers fast and flexible 5G indoor coverage. It operates on 5G midbands (i.e. 3-6 GHz) and delivers speeds up to 2 Gbps. • Using Ericsson Spectrum Sharing Software Solution, it is possible to share spectum between 4G and 5G dynamically at the same time and using existing same hardware. Hence it is easy to migrate to 5G NR network using existing 4G network equipment hardware. • Website : https://www.ericsson.com/en/networks/offerings/5g/offerings
Huawei Technologies	• It offers equipments to convert 4G site to 5G site. • The 5000 series radio units manufactured by Huawei include BBU5900, Blade RRU, EasyMacro, Massive MIMO units. • Huawei multimode base stations support 5G NR specifications, 4T4R and Massive MIMO. • C-band Massive MIMO AAU (Active Antenna Unit) offers high power and high bandwidth. Latest in the offering Model AAU5613 supports band n78 (3.5 GHz) and 64T64R massive MIMO configuration. • Huawei provides E2E 5G solutions for R15 commercialization which include Massive MIMO Macro (AAU5613, AAU5310, HAAU5213), Massive MIMO Pole Site, (HAAU5112, EasyBlink) Small cell (5G LampSite), 5G CPE device, Baseband (viz. BBU5900, CBU5900), Transport equipments (viz. microwavem IPRAN/PTN, FO OTN, WDM), Cloud based core and so on.
Nokia Finland	• The company offers end to end 5G services including radio system, core and transport systems. • Website : https://www.nokia.com/
Qualcomm Technologies	• The company offers Snapdragon X60 which is a 5G Modem RF System. • It supports mmWave and sub-6 bands using FDD and TDD topologies. It houses QTM535 mmWave antenna module. • The company also develops other 5G NR chipsets , modules and platforms.
Samsung Electronics	• It offers end to end solutions for 5G network including chips (RF chipset, 5G modem), networking equipments (i.e. 5G mmwave access, 5G sub 6GHz access, virtualized access and core) and devices (i.e. mobile, 5G home router). • Company develops commercial massive MIMO solutions such as 64T/64R antenna along with configured radio.
ZTE Corporation	• It has recently developed 5G SA core network commercial equipment. • The China Telecom has conducted tests on 5G SA system with regard to testing its performance and stability.
NEC Corporation	• The company along with Rakuten Mobile Inc. have announced the introduction of 5G RU (Radio unit) jointly developed by them. • The RU supports 3.7 GHz band and houses massive MIMO in a single compact unit. • Both the companies are working together to develop Open RAN 5G Radio Equipments.