Tracing Intel mobile trial platform’s evolution

Article By : Steve Taranovich

The third generation of Intel’s 5G MTP has mmWave array capabilities for 2x4, 4x4 and 8x8 Dual-polarisation (POL) arrays.

« Previously: Why Altera FPGAs are big part of Intel’s 5G strategy
 

Intel’s first generation MTP has been the industry’s first for 5G and supported sub-6GHz as well as mmWave.

Intel_MTP_03 (cr)
Figure 1: MTP Phase 1a Chassis (Source: Intel)

This system was fully operational in February 2016 and gave field testing teams rapid test results regarding interoperability. That system is presently being used by Tier-1 service providers. See the following video for more details:

Second generation MTP

In Generation two, five Powerful Next-Gen Arria 10 FPGA Signal Processors were employed for ongoing flexibility in meeting emerging changes as 5G evolves.

This design employed advanced RF Unit to support Sub-6GHz & 28GHz mmWave bands with Four-Stream MIMO within the RFIC. This enabled accelerated spectral capacity optimisation.

In this second generation effort, Intel integrated 2×4 and 4X4 Dual-polarisation (POL) array configurations directly into the front-end RFIC, incorporating observations Intel had already gathered about the behaviours of mmWave spectrum and massive MIMO, both indoors and outdoors, in early field tests with Verizon. This brought them closer to a real product, with excellent link and system capacity.

Third generation MTP

Twice the processing capability of the 2nd generation 5G MTP—here is where the Stratix 10 FPGA shows its full capabilities.

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Figure 2: The Intel 3rd-generation 5G MTP (Source: Intel)

See this video for more details:

Nokia, Ericsson and Intel’s MTP

Why do Nokia and Ericsson want Intel’s 3rd generation 5G MTP?

Well, all of the above, which I have mentioned plus the MTP, supports multi-gigabit capability over-the-air speeds and addresses key aspects of 5G such as:

  • Multi-carrier and multi-device operations
  • Advanced scheduling
  • 4×4 and 8×8 arrays
  • Broad RF support up in high-capacity millimetre wave frequencies.

This system will support these frequency bands:

  • 600 to 900MHz
  • 3.3 to 4.2GHz
  • 5.1 to 5.9GHz

The MTP will support 28GHz and 30GHz as well and have early interoperability with 3GPP NR in Q4’17.

The 5G MTP has mmWave array capabilities for 2×4, 4×4 and 8×8 Dual-polarisation (POL) arrays.
 
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