Qualcomm today announced broader operator support for millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology and revealed 5G open radio access network (RAN) small cells and a 5G distributed unit accelerator card.

The U.S. chipmaker last year vowed to break into the open RAN chipset business with a portfolio of silicon, system-on-a-chip (SoC) based products, and reference architecture shipping in the first half of 2022. 

Qualcomm, which is targeting mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum infrastructure, is helping 5G operators transition from basic coverage to deploy technology needed for greater capacity and new use cases, Gerardo Giaretta, senior director of product management at Qualcomm, explained during a press briefing. 

5G networks need to be more diverse in how they are deployed and implemented, he said, noting that 5G infrastructure carries much more complexity than previous generations of cellular technology. 

“From a 5G infrastructure perspective in Qualcomm, we are going to focus on what we refer to as the 5G physical layer, or 5G layer one of the protocol stack,” Giaretta said. This involves baseband and radio frequency (RF) functions in radio units, and baseband functionality in distributed units (DU), he said, adding that “it’s all based on the open RAN framework.”

The Qualcomm 5G DU X100 accelerator card, which can be plugged into commercial-off-the-shelf servers, features support for sub-6 GHz and mmWave basebands for open RAN fronthaul and 5G new radio layer 1 processing. 

The vendor claims the accelerator cards can increase network performance and reduce the number of CPUs required, thereby reducing power consumption. Qualcomm is working with Deutsche Telekom, NTT DoCoMo, and Vodafone to advance open RAN technology, and said the accelerator cards will start shipping in the first half of 2022.

Qualcomm also announced it’s collaborating with more than 35 operators and vendors in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, the U.S., and elsewhere to advance 5G mmWave technology. “The expansion of 5G mmWave is now inevitable. It is essential to achieve the full potential of 5G and those embracing 5G mmWave will find themselves with a competitive advantage,” CEO Cristiano Amon said in a statement. 

The supporting cast on Qualcomm’s mmWave efforts include: AT&T, Casa Systems, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Optus, Orange, Rakuten Mobile, Samsung, Singtel, Softbank, Telia Finland, Telstra, US Cellular, ZTE, and others. 

Finally, Qualcomm revealed its second-generation 5G RAN platform for small cells supporting 3GPP Release 16. The vendor claims its the first modem-RF system supporting the Release 16 5G open RAN platform.

Features of the FSM100xx include enhanced ultra-reliable low-latency communication (eURLLC) operating on mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum bands, and data speeds up to 8 Gb/s, according to Qualcomm.

Qualcomm is working with Airspan, Altiostar, Askey, Baicells, Capgemini Engineering, Foxconn, Radisys, and Sercomm on the new small cells, which it expects to start shipping in the first half of 2022.