Ericsson has filed its 5G Foundation patent application with WIPO (worldwide) and USPTO (US). By incorporating numerous Ericsson inventions into a complete architecture for the 5G network standard and filing it as a pioneering 5G patent application, the company intends to lay the foundation for all future mobile networks.
The patent application, which combines the work of 130 Ericsson inventors, is the largest in cellular communications in terms of number of inventors, anywhere in the world*. It shows the industry how Ericsson has approached 5G standardisation with a comprehensive view that connects individual inventions in a complete 5G telecommunications network, rather than focusing on any smaller individual inventions.
Dr. Stefan Parkvall, Principal Researcher at Ericsson, says the patent application contains Ericsson’s complementary suite of 5G inventions and highlights the important role that Ericsson plays to bring complementary technologies together to satisfy 5G’s technical requirements.
“It contains everything you need to build a complete 5G network,” Parkvall says. “From devices, the overall network architecture, the nodes in the network, methods and algorithms, but also shows how to connect all this together into one fully functioning network. The inventions in this application will have a huge impact on industry and society: they will provide low latency with high performance and capacity. This will enable new use cases like the Internet of Things, connected factories and self-driving cars.”
Janne Peisa, Principal Researcher at Ericsson, also worked on the project and says this early patent application clearly shows Ericsson’s leadership in 5G architecture.
“Ericsson has invested many years and a lot of resources into 5G research and that has led directly into this foundation application. Ericsson innovations are playing a leading role in the 5G standardisation process, and we really show the industry how to use the individual inventions in a complete 5G telecommunications network.”
The team is already looking beyond the current work to how it will be shared, adopted and used by the industry. “This application is just the beginning, showing the entire industry the network of the future,” Parkvall says. “It will have a major impact on our future lives – it’s a very interesting time we’re living in right now.”
