Vodafone, Ericsson Demonstrate 5G Proof of Concept

July 8, 2016

Ericsson and Vodafone have demonstrated a new 5G proof of concept following their joint commitment to 5G innovation announced during Mobile World Congress of this year. The two companies created a 5G Smart Network Edge prototype including a 5G-ready core and demonstrated the benefits of network slicing and distributed cloud technology using the example of a “Machine Vision” application.

Machine Vision can be used for quality assurance within manufacturing and production processes and to measure or recognize objects. In a typical setup, pictures provided by high-speed cameras are processed, analyzed and trigger further actions such as sorting out defective parts. In a live demo shown during the Innovation Days at Ericsson’s R&D Center in Aachen, Germany, both companies showed how the 5G Smart Network Edge enables much greater efficiency for industry.

Because of reduced network latencies, the recognition rate of a cloud-based face detection application was increased. Significantly less video traffic had to be sent over the wide-area network and sensitive data was kept locally and was therefore better protected against unauthorized access.