At the beginning of the year, 3GPP formally approved a proposal for 5G acceleration, bringing the 5G New Radio (NR) non-independent networking feature to December 2017 to be completed, half a year earlier than the original plan. This radical agenda also makes 5G the most vivid field of "contending of a hundred schools of thought". On October 24th, National Instruments (NI) and Southeast University formally announced that they had reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly sign a millimeter wave technology joint laboratory construction agreement and work together to develop 5G technology.
Hand in hand with "double first-class" universities to advance the 5G process, NI focuses on key technology research and development and "new engineering" talent training
Through this strategic cooperation, NI and Southeast University will jointly focus on the two major directions of the millimeter wave joint scientific research center and the talent training base. First, based on NI’s flexible software-defined radio module, the two parties will cooperate closely in the fields of millimeter wave high-speed prototype system/millimeter wave MIMO communication system and vehicle radar millimeter wave test and target simulation system to jointly build a platform for millimeter wave systems. Working together to break through the key technical problems of millimeter wave communications, NI will also help Southeast University to undertake the research and development of major national subjects and China's overall 5G pre-research capabilities to lead the world.
Secondly, the two parties will build on the construction of a joint training base, feature disciplines such as microwave communication and information technology, and aim at the construction of first-class disciplines, promote a project-based curriculum system, refine talent training plans, and establish coverage both inside and outside the school. An all-round talent innovation training base for students and industry talents, jointly promote the comprehensive reform project of industry-university cooperation and the national university student innovation and entrepreneurship project, and cultivate talents in the mobile communication and information technology industries.
Figure 2. Strategic cooperation framework between NI and Southeast University
As a national key university directly managed by the central government and directly under the Ministry of Education, Southeast University has been selected this year as another national strategic “double first-class” university in China’s higher education sector after the 211 Project and the 985 Project. The millimeter wave communication technology joint research center is based on the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Wave of Southeast University. It is reported that the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves of Southeast University is one of the state key laboratories approved by the State Planning Commission in the early 1990s. It has been fully engaged in microwave and millimeter wave front-ends, various passive components and antennas in the early 1990s. , Chips and systems, and other aspects have helped promote the development and application of millimeter wave band spectrum resources in China. In recent years, the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves of Southeast University has made a number of cutting-edge research results in the fields of millimeter wave and submillimeter wave theory and technology and application systems, radio frequency and antenna technology in wireless communications, and has attracted the attention of the industry.
Fei Qingguo, Director of the Research Institute of Southeast University, said, “NI is the first batch of strategic cooperative enterprises and joint laboratories established after Southeast University was selected as a “double first-class” university. Chemical cooperation is of great significance to the advancement of Southeast University’s scientific research in the 5G frontier field."
Platform + Ecology "Grasp both hands", NI forms an exclusive strategy to help 5G R&D
Previously, the Global Association for Mobile Communications Systems had predicted that by 2025, there will be 1.1 billion 5G connections in the world, most of which will come from the Asia-Pacific region. Among them, the number of 5G users in China will reach 100 million. According to the calculation of the "5G Economic and Social Impact White Paper" issued by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, starting from the official commercial use of 5G in 2020, it is expected to drive about 484 billion yuan in direct output that year, which will increase to 3.3 in 2025 and 2030. Trillion, 6.3 trillion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of 29% over the past ten years. 5G will comprehensively build the key infrastructure for the digital transformation of the economy and society, from online to offline, from consumption to production, from platform to ecology, Promote the development of China's digital economy to a new level. Therefore, China's IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group has determined a 5G time plan for trial commercial use in 2018 and full commercial use in 2020. The broad prospects of 5G in the future mean that current research and development are imminent.
Figure 3. NI confirmed the lead user program for radio frequency communications as early as 2010
As early as 2010, NI has determined the radio frequency communication lead user plan, and cooperated with the world's top communication research institutes and communication equipment manufacturers, such as New York University, Stanford, Nokia, AT&T, etc., based on NI's platform strategy, Position key technologies, design system reference architectures, and jointly promote 5G technology research and standardization processes. At the same time, it is well known that Massive MIMO and millimeter wave research (mmWave) are key technologies for 5G research and development, and prototype verification is critical to the early stage of 5G key technology research. From the industry's first real-time Massive MIMO prototype platform to the industry's first 2GHz bandwidth, which can be used for channel measurement, and to build a real-time two-way multi-channel MIMO millimeter wave communication prototype system, NI millimeter wave transceiver real-time system, NI uses open graphical programming software Supported by flexible modular hardware, it provides a full range of R&D support for 5G. The announcement of the strategic cooperation between NI and Southeast University is also a concrete manifestation of the sinicization of these two strategies.
Figure 4. Speech by Professor Hong Wei, Dean of School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University
About the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Southeast University
The State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves of Southeast University is one of the state key laboratories approved by the State Planning Commission in the early 1990s. Relying on the national key discipline of "Electromagnetic Field and Microwave Technology", the laboratory has the right to grant doctorate and master degrees, and has a post-doctoral mobile station. It is the post-appointment unit of the "Yangtze River Scholars Program" of the Ministry of Education and the "Double First Class" first-class discipline construction unit . At present, the academic team of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves has one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 4 distinguished/chair professors of the "Yangtze River Scholars Program", 5 IEEE Fellows, 3 winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, and 4 young people. There are 72 teachers and more than 300 doctoral/master candidates. Leading the completion of a series of national 973 projects, national major special projects, National Natural Science Foundation of China Innovation Group Scientific Research Fund, National 863 Project, National Outstanding Youth Fund Project and other major national projects. He has won dozens of scientific research awards such as the National Natural Science Award, the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and the Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. It has more than 100 million yuan of various microwave and millimeter wave test equipment, covering 1.1 terahertz network, spectrum and signal parameter testing equipment, 1.1 terahertz probe test bench and chip testing equipment, etc.; has multiple antennas and scattering test environments, Including large far-field antenna test anechoic chamber, near-field antenna test anechoic chamber and electromagnetic compatibility test anechoic chamber, and has a wealth of genuine EDA simulation software, such as Cadence, Synopsis, HFSS, CST, ADS and Feko, etc. The research foundation and research conditions are in the leading position in China status.