Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, and the 5G Lab Germany have entered into a research collaboration agreement to test 5G.

More specifically, the two organisations will develop and test technologies that will help define the capability of 5G mobile networks in meeting the massive connectivity demands of the future, with the high-performance required by end-users.

Opened in September 2014, the 5G Lab Germany consists of 20 professors from the Technische Universität Dresden, one of the leading universities in Europe, with more than 500 scientists.

The 5G Lab Germany is a recognised technology consortium in the collaborative effort required to develop and deliver 5G networks.

The lab comprises four separate tracks which allow members to focus on areas of interest, while providing an overall view of 5G networks.

As a new member of the 5G Lab Germany, Alcatel-Lucent will initially focus its research efforts on the Wireless - Networks track of the program.

The Alcatel-Lucent collaboration with 5G Lab Germany will initially focus on use of multiple device-to-radio connections to enhance reliability for mission-critical communications.

Studies will investigate how network capacity and reliability could be enhanced by connecting a device like a smartphone to multiple radios simultaneously.

It will focus on how multiple 5G radio links or a combination of 5G and 4G LTE radio links could enhance reliability for mission-critical communications, where disruption to the network will cause a failure in operations, such as for transportation workers and emergency first responders.

The organisations will jointly analyse new air interface, or radio frequency link, proposals for 5G concept/prototype networks and will be proposing them in the upcoming 5G standardisation process.

The newly-developed Bell Labs Universal Filtered-Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (UF-OFDM) waveform for 5G networks is a leading contender for standardisation and will enable enhanced performance and new services, while dramatically increasing the number of users (both human and machine) as well as reduce the complexity of 5G networks.

"With Alcatel Lucent's system insights and know-how we can address the most relevant challenges in designing and operating highly reliable and resilient mobile networks,” says Gerhard Fettweis, TU Dresden Vodafone Chair Mobile Communications Systems.

“We investigate a theoretical framework that allows us to analyse waveforms, find performance bounds and find low-complexity designs for implementation.

“The second project targets on new access technologies as an enhancement of the dual-connectivity transmission approach and joint coordination among multiple radio access technologies to meet various service requirements," he says.

Tod Sizer, Bell Labs head of wireless research, says, "Our history with TU Dresden goes even beyond the very early definition of 5G and now we are innovating together to enable low latency applications, higher capacity solutions, as well as support for both Massive MIMO and Massive numbers of connected machine devices."