Ericsson Launches 5G Software Plug-Ins

Ericsson has created some software plug-ins for networks to evolve toward 5G, perhaps in an effort to generate some buzz around 5G while it goes through the sluggish process of spectrum deals and standards work. The software-driven plug-ins aim to bring 5G-like capabilities to existing networks with commercial availability targeted for 2017.Ericsson touts the plug-ins as a way to serve 5G use cases from mobile HD video, to driverless buses, to feedback-enabled drones. Ericsson’s marketing machine has been touting the use-cases angle of 5G. At Mobile World Congress in February, Ericsson CTO Ulf Ewaldsson, talked about network slicing as a way to use the same network infrastructure but create slices for particular industry verticals and their specific use cases.