Huawei has launched a new 5G research centre in Belgium, aiming to support its Europe-wide research into next generation technology.
The centre will be in charge of the 18 research and development sites Huawei runs across eight countries in Europe. The vendor employs more than 1,200 R&D staff working on various projects, including the 5G testbed at the University of Surrey in the UK. It also launched a 5G vertical industry accelerator and testbed in Munich, Germany to demonstrate real-time deployment of 5G in vertical industries. Huawei also works on the EU’s METIS and 5G-PPP projects exploring the technology.
The institute will be located in Leuven and will be headed by Dr. Zhou Hong, who has been in charge of the vendor’s European R&D, standardisation and technical cooperation activities since last year. Former ETSI Director General Walter Wiegel will serve as its Vice-President.
Huawei Rotating CEO Guo Ping said: “Europe enjoys a favourable industrial environment, and is the global competence centre for Huawei. The ERI will manage Huawei’s European research and innovation activities, and strengthen our cooperation with European industry and academia.
“As digitisation transforms every business into a digital business, Huawei is working with its partners to achieve a smooth transition towards ‘Europe 4.0’ – the digitised European Union of the future in which everyone and everything will be connected. Our aim is to help Europe achieve smart growth and build a better connected Europe.”
Meanwhile, the vendor has released what it is claiming is the world’s first “fully outdoor” wavelength division multiplexing product.
The solution can be used for carrying LTE and LTE-A common public radio interface services, which Huawei said reduces the cost of network deployment and operations. The product replaces the optical fibre that connect baseband units with remote radio units, which Huawei claims makes network maintenance easier and improves reliability.
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