EdgeQ Inc, a developer in 5G wireless infrastructure, showcased and sampled a massively integrated, all-in-one, 4G+5G small cell and a highly programmable O-RAN PCIe acceleration card. The announcement comes at a time when EdgeQ is sampling and entering trials with worldwide OEMs and operators on their ground breaking 5G Base Station-on-a-Chip technology.
The highly scalable, flexibly adaptive EdgeQ platform targets both gnB small cells and O-RAN applications in a completely softwarized manner. By compacting 4G, 5G, and compute into a single-chip, EdgeQ showcased an all-in-one small cell with fully integrated Radio Unit (RU), Distributed Unit (DU), and Central Unit (CU); L1, L2, L3 stacks; and fully inclusive ORAN splits. The scalable architecture packs unprecedented throughput performance across a large set of concurrent users, but all within a compact power envelop enabling Power-Over-Ethernet.
The same EdgeQ platform can also be refactored into a multi-carrier, multi-user, massive MIMO DU base station with L1 inline acceleration. By simply uploading O-RAN Distributed Unit firmware, EdgeQ showcased both 4G and 5G Physical Layer running across an eCPRI interface but now with O-RAN splits in a multi-user environment.
“EdgeQ’s platform provides both 4G+5G in a single silicon unit, which is an unsolved pain point in today’s industry,” said Stephen Sek, Chief of Technology, US & EU Technology Centers, Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC). “By coupling low power with massive 5G+4G PHY integration and L2+L3 support, EdgeQ’s value statement is disruptively compelling for private and public 5G networks alike.”
“These two landmark demonstrations show how we address the many pluralities of 5G. For small cells, the 5G network can be reconstituted as an all-in-one 5G gNB, complete with our field deployable 4G/5G PHY and integrated L2+L3 in a single silicon. We can leverage that exact silicon to also run a fully compliant O-RAN Distributed Unit PCIe card interoperating with standard O-RAN based splits. Having the gNB and PCIe accelerator card predicated on the same design platform greatly facilitates deployment ease as well as overall integration into our customers’ networks,” said Adil Kidwai, Head of Product Management at EdgeQ, “We have imagined a highly flexible, softwarized 5G platform that is integrative, low power, and remarkably disruptive.”
EdgeQ has also announced that they are sampling the gNB solution and PCIe card as they enter into the revenue phase of the company.
