[Hong Kong, 2 June 2023] The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), together with ecosystem partners join two leading events of Communication Technology in June, including the 31st PT Expo China in Beijing from 4 – 6 June, and MWC Shanghai 2023 from 28 – 30 June, jointly showcase their 5G applied technologies and award-winning innovations at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions this year, with the theme of “Intelligent 5G, Beyond Connectivity”, also demonstrating the 5G technology enabling real-time robot arm control at PT Expo China for the first time.
ASTRI maintain long-term collaboration with ecosystem partners, including Anktion (Fujian) Technology Co., Ltd (Anktion), Astella Technologies Limited (Astella), Coxsat Technology Co., Ltd. (COXSAT), n-hop Technologies Ltd (n-hop), Peng Cheng Laboratory (PCL)and SageRAN Network Technology of Guangzhou Co., Ltd (SageRAN), to develop technologies that fulfil market needs and facilitate the discussion on scientific research between enterprises in Hong Kong, China, and overseas, as well as to promote new industrialization and digital transformation through cutting-edge technologies and applications, such as 5G solutions, C-V2X technology, IoT blockchain and cloud robotics.
ASTRI’s technologies showcase includes:
- TSN-enabled 5G Solution for Industrial Internet
(Live demonstration on TSN-enabled 5G data plane enabling real-time robot arm control at PT Expo China) - 5G O-RAN base station
- 5G-IAB Enabled by Network Coding
- Digital Front-End and mmWave solution
- 5G-Enabled Cloud Robotics
- 5G C-V2X solution
- IoT Blockchain for 5G
Dr. Denis Yip, Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI said: “ASTRI is delighted to showcase our innovations and technologies together with our partners. As 5G network technology is getting mature, our technologies have been licensed to customers in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the rest of the world for commercialisation. We look forward to collaborating with more experts, professors, and industry leaders to enhance the 5G technology ecosystem and the related infrastructure through developing diversified technological research, exploring more application scenarios and feasible solutions, and contributing to industrial transformation and smart city development.”
TSN-enabled 5G solution: ASTRI’s 5G TSN solution supports new industrialisation and digital transformation. At the PT EXPO China 2023, ASTRI will showcase a live demonstration of TSN-enabled 5G data plane enabling real-time robot arm control. Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is the IEEE 802.1Q defined standard technology to provide deterministic messaging on standard Ethernet. The TSN-enabled 5G system, perceived as an IEEE-compliant virtual Ethernet TSN bridge extends TSN capabilities over the wireless domain for time critical services. The system can support “5G + Industrial Internet” use cases in smart factories, power grids, mining, smart transportation, and other industry 4.0 scenarios. ASTRI is currently collaborating with PCL – a national research centre located in Shenzhen, to realize the TSN-enabled 5G system. Both parties will jointly publish a whitepaper on “Empowering 5G Data Path for Time Sensitive Networking“.
5G O-RAN base station: ASTRI integrates a modular software stack on vendor-neutral hardware with open interfaces, which allows baseband and radio unit components (namely O-RU, O-DU, and O-CU) from various individual suppliers to operate seamlessly together. Some key functions include cell discovery, network monitoring, mmWave, digital beamforming, small cell enhancements, heterogeneous network support, spectrum sharing, URLLC, etc. ASTRI’s 5G base station reference design supports a variety of industry-leading platforms, including x86, Arm, and SoC, and distributed and integrated small cell design. At the event, ASTRI, together with Anktion, Astella, and SageRAN, showcases different 5G base station solutions enabled by ASTRI.
5G-IAB Enabled by Network Coding: ASTRI, together with Anktion and n-hop technologies jointly showcase the world’s first Network Coding enabled 5G IAB network. This ground-breaking technology invented by n-hop deployed in the form of BATched Sparse (BATS) code enhances the capability of densely connected 5G base stations, without the need of fibre cabling whilst maximizing information flow through the network. Along with Anktion’s base stations, the advanced BATS solution highlights the sharing of wireless spectrum for backhauling and user equipment connectivity, unlocking the potential of rapid cell site deployment and efficient use of spectrum.
Digital Front-End (DFE) and mmWave solution: ASTRI’s technology is developed in collaboration with COXSAT (China), Astella (Hong Kong), and NXP Semiconductors (US). It extends small-cell base station solution from FR1 to FR2 millimetre wave. In the joint demo, a 5G NR 100MHz wideband signal modulated in 256QAM with the highest code rate (MCS 27) is generated by ASTRI physical layer and transmitted in mmWave (operating in n257 with Fc=24.65GHz) via COXSAT upconverter and analogue beamforming module. The radiated signal beam is decoded successfully. ASTRI and COXSAT enable analogue beamforming by which the base station can always maintain high coverage and excellent signal quality as UE moves to various positions. In addition, ASTRI’s innovative DFE solution significantly compensates wideband transceiver limitation and improves modulation quality without increasing hardware cost. The DFE solution can bridge different players in the ecosystem and help build enhanced Sub-6 solution and comprehensive mmWave solution.
5G-enabled Cloud Robotics Platform: It combines multiple innovations to provide a low-cost industrial robotics solution. With ASTRI’s Easy-5G solution, robots can communicate with high bandwidth and ultra-reliable low latency. With multi-sensor fusion perception and centimetre-level positioning technology, robots can work reliably in dynamic and complex industrial environments and can help enterprises to carry out a variety of special processes. With cloud and edge computing technology, the robot “brain” is migrated to the cloud, making robots affordable, energy-efficient, easy to deploy and maintain.
5G C-V2X Solution: ASTRI continues to advance the adoption of 5G C-V2X Solution in Hong Kong. Together with partners, ASTRI has developed an in-vehicle unit, a roadside unit with fusion perception and edge management, as well as a traffic planning and simulation platform to maximise the overall breakthrough and verify the solution in the field. After over one year of C-V2X public road tests in Hong Kong, ASTRI is collaborating with local government and industry partners in the Greater Bay Area to develop cross-border C-V2X solutions and advanced C-V2X applications. In addition, ASTRI is working on connected autonomous vehicles (CAV) in assisting autonomous driving in avoiding hidden dangers and improving road safety.
IoT Blockchain for 5G solution: It uses blockchain technology as the backbone for transparency and traceability. It uses an off-chain approach to address problems such as slow data access, storing vast amounts of data, and managing frequent IoT data updating. It also uses blockchain to handle areas such as data discovery and publication, smart contracts for transactions, data security and privacy protection. This solution is believed to be attractive to organisations that require confidential data exchange involving multiple data providers, or data consumers with different purposes (such as property management, logistical control, and medical services).
For more information, please visit ASTRI’s booth
- The 31st PT Expo China holds at Beijing China National Conference Center (CNCC) from 4-6 June, booth no. is E2756.
- MWC Shanghai holds at Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) from 28-30 June, booth no. is E132.
ASTRI showcased their award-winning 5G technologies with ecosystem partners and launched 3GPP R15 5G+TSN end-to-end solution for the first time.
Dr. Yolanda Tsang, Director, Communications Technologies of ASTRI gave a speech at the “5G+Industrial Internet High-level Forum” and published a joint whitepaper on “Empowering 5G Data Path for Time Sensitive Networking ” with Peng Cheng Laboratory.
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