As a part of the "Research and Development Project of the Enhanced Infrastructures for Post-5G Information and Communication Systems" commissioned by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), Magna Wireless Inc. (Hachioji City, Tokyo Prefecture), Graduate School of Engineering of the University of Osaka, and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have jointly developed the world's first post-5G-compatible semiconductor chip that enables ultralow-latency communications. The chip reduces the processing time (delay time) of 5G wireless communications by a factor of 50. Specifically, it reduces the conventional processing time of approximately 10 ms to < 0.2 ms. This makes it possible to use wireless communication for control signals and other communications that require ultralow latency. For example, it will be possible to control a robot in real time using an AI server via local 5G wireless communication.
Magna Wireless Inc. plans to commercialize this post-5G semiconductor chip during FY2025. Notably, 5G mobile communication systems have three characteristics: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC), which are inherently in a trade-off relationship with each other. Further, semiconductor chips enabling ultralow-latency communications within less than a few milliseconds, which is necessary for industrial applications, have not been available in the market until now. This means that wireless communication cannot be employed in many scenarios. This has been one of the reasons why local 5G, which is expected to be used in industries, has not been widely adopted.
The post-5G semiconductor chip developed this time supports software defined radio (SDR: 01 Software Defined Radio), making it possible to select the optimal wireless communication method for various applications. A new wireless communication method that improves the local 5G communication performance was also developed in conjunction with the chip. Dedicated logic circuits are employed for wireless signal processing in the chip. Thereby, ultralow-latency communications are achieved by significantly reducing the conventional delay time of 10 ms or more to 0.2 ms or less.
In addition, the SDR function enables the implementation of various communication settings, such as delay or bandwidth priority, ratio of upstream/downstream communication, and wireless modulation method. With 273 frequency settings × 280 time settings × 29 modulation settings × 2 upstream/downstream settings, the optimal wireless settings can be selected for various applications. By separating the signal processing module and the protocol processing module and utilizing SDR functions, the network slicing function can be expanded to accommodate various requirements by slicing (virtually dividing) the network for each service, making it possible to support multiple and diverse types of slicing on a single chip.
As an application example, the team demonstrated chip operation with a slicing number of three or more when ultralow-latency communication and high-speed, large-capacity communication were simultaneously performed. Interoperability with base stations from multiple vendors was also demonstrated, making this chip versatile and applicable for various wireless systems.
Two new wireless communication methods were developed and proposed to improve the local 5G communication performance: (1) a low latency/multiconnection 5G assignment method and (2) an image transmission method for terminal slicing (Deep JSCC). These new methods can be implemented to construct systems using the SDR functions of the post-5G-compatible semiconductor chip. For the low-latency/multiconnection 5G assignment method, the NOMA method, which shares the same radio communication resources (frequency and time), was used to achieve simultaneous connection of two user terminals, successfully achieving low-latency video transmission. The image transmission method for terminal slicing achieves high-quality-image transmission and highly efficient communication in a versatile wireless system that uses images.
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