Rohde & Schwarz tests 5G LBS with Qualcomm chip

Test company Rohde & Schwarz and Qualcomm Technologies said that they have completed the first 5G New Radio location-based services session, with a Snapdragon X55 modem. The 5G LBS testing consisted of successful verification of an assisted GPS (A-GPS) control plane LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) test session over 5G New Radio. A device with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G modem and a Qualcomm radio frequency front-end “was able to successfully establish a 5G non-standalone connection and then perform GPS fixes according to 3GPP requirements,” according to R&S. More precise location awareness is expected to be a major facet of 5G, both in terms of successful network and device interaction as well as for new services. “Positioning in general will play a tremendous role in future 5G networks … enabling not only a vast amount of different location-based services and applications such as intelligent traffic system (ITS) and autonomous vehicles, but also valuable location-aware communication solutions like proactive radio resource management (RRM), for instance,” according to Finland’s Tampere University of Technology, which conducts research on the role of positioning and location-awareness in 5G networks.