Ericsson today announced the commercial availability of standalone 5G New Radio (NR) software that gives network operators the ability to deploy a pure 5G network on Ericsson equipment for the first time. The standalone architecture, which is based on 3GPP Release 15 standards, means 5G can operate independently on a dedicated packet core instead of being dependent on 4G LTE to serve connectivity.

Ericsson’s radio access network (RAN) equipment can be upgraded to standalone 5G NR via a software update and the vendor says it expects operators to begin deploying standalone 5G NR later this year. Ericsson also released inter-band carrier aggregation software, two new 5G radios, and NFV infrastructure (NFVI) so operators can distribute workloads at the edge and launch new cloud-based services.

“We foresee in the future more complex and more advanced 5G networks than these initial deployments,” Hannes Ekstrom, head of Ericsson’s 5G RAN product line, told SDxCentral in a phone interview. Standalone 5G software “leads to an enhanced and simplified architecture both in the radio network and on the user experience side,” including faster response times, better coverage, and the ability to deliver new use cases around low-latency dependent technologies like virtual reality, he added.

“From a service provider perspective, we connect to a new core network called 5G core, which enables operators to launch 5G services faster and in a more agile way,” Ekstrom said. “The packet core, for instance, needs to support the 5G radio” and that creates a tightly controlled interface between the 5G RAN and core, which can deliver key 5G NR features like latency response times under 1 millisecond, he explained.

All eight of the commercial 5G networks that Ericsson has helped facilitate to date have been deployed on high- and mid-band spectrum in a non-standalone environment. While the new software and 5G core can deliver standalone architecture, Ekstrom says operators also need to introduce low-band spectrum to fully realize the potential of standalone 5G NR.

“As you move to standalone architecture and no longer rely on the LTE connectivity, we need to introduce low-band spectrum as well,” he said. Ericsson’s Inter-band NR Carrier Aggregation software will extend the coverage and capacity of 5G NR on mid- and high-bands when combined with 5G NR on low-band spectrum, Ekstrom explained.

“When you have two or more bands deployed it enables the operator to aggregate those bands and serve more spectrum, so a combination of bands to end users,” he said.

Martin Bäckström, head of Ericsson’s cloud technology portfolio, told SDxCentral that the vendor is also launching a cloud platform optimized for applications at the edge of the network that is multi-tenant and multi-purpose. By operating under a strategy that places all applications and the core on cloud-native infrastructure, Ericsson can help operators make services available more quickly and deliver a “small scale type of cloud deployment and machinery,” he said.

Ericsson’s new massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) 5G radios — AIR 1636 and AIR 1623 — are designed for mid-band spectrum applications.

“The momentum that we see in the market on 5G right now is simply tremendous,” Ekstrom said. Earlier this month, Ericsson projected that 5G subscriptions will reach 1.9 billion by 2024, accounting for 20% of all mobile subscriptions at the time.