ASTRI Demonstrates "5G Experiences for Smarter City" Technologies at PT/EXPO China 2016

Hong Kong, Sept. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) today announces that it will participate in the PT/EXPO China 2016 to be held at the China International Exhibtion Centre, Beijing from 20 to 23 Sept, 2016. PT/EXPO China is one of the large-scale and most influential platforms of ICT exchanges and exhibition in Asia. 

This year, ASTRI will have a big booth (#8B102) at the PT/ EXPO China 2016 to showcase its enabling technologies for "5G Experience for Smarter City", including the (1) Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) platform, (2) FastCloud Orchestrator and (3) End-to-end Centralised and Coordinated Radio Access Network (C-RAN) solution at the event.

1. Mobile Edge Computing + Virtual Tour Solution

ASTRI will demonstrate its first proof of concept (PoC) prototype for Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for LTE networks. MEC technology provides a computing platform to host services to mobile users near mobile base stations without going via the mobile backhaul and core network (EPC). MEC allows optimisation of the latency, bandwidth, and radio network resources to enable unique applications, such as IoV and virtual reality.

With core competence in TD-LTE, network function virtualisation (NFV), mobile core network (EPC), and virtual reality (VR), ASTRI builds MEC prototype with virtual tour service running on top. Benefit from the low latency, high bandwidth and reliable connection provided by MEC and LTE, the virtual tour service can track the 3-dimension head movement in real time, so it can offer an immersive virtual reality experience.  

2. FastCloud Orchestrator

ASTRI will also demonstrate new generation of FastCloud orchestrator based on Intel Open Network Platform (ONP) which can deploy and reconfigure end-to-end virtualised LTE networks in a visualised manner. ASTRI's FastCloud orchestrator provides a template based design tool that allows planning and design of the LTE network before launch. With just a few clicks, an end-to-end LTE network can be deployed in just a few minutes. Compared with the traditional non-virtualised network deployment, ASTRI's FastCloud orchestrator greatly facilitates the network deployment.

3. C-RAN Reference Design

ASTRI's C-RAN reference design is our next generation small cells supporting centralised and coordinated RAN processing. Equipped with virtualisation framework (e.g. open-stack), the reference design is highly flexible to be integrated with any mobile edge applications, such as indoor positioning, low latency virtual reality, content caching and so on. ASTRI's Baseband Unit (BBU) pool design has (1) high capability, supporting >96 cells with full capacity loading; (2) high performance, supporting distributed MIMO with baseband join scheduling/processing; (3) high flexibility, supporting inter and intra cell coordination, cell aggregation and flexible MAC/PHY partitions. In this demonstration, ASTRI has realised a cost effective and delay insensitive partition where the L3 and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) are centralised. This design is low cost and very suitable for large-scale deployment such as railway and Vehicular to Infrastructure (V2I) applications. 

About ASTRI

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI) was founded by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2000 with the mission of enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research.  ASTRI's core R&D competences in various areas are organised under seven Technology Divisions, namely Communications Technologies, Electronics Components, IC Design (Analog), IC Design (Digital), Opto-electronics, Security and Data Sciences, and Software and Systems. Five areas of applications including financial technologies, intelligent manufacturing, next generation network, health technology, and smart city are identified for major pursuit. For further information about ASTRI, please visit www.astri.org.

For details of the expo, please visit http://ptexpo.com.cn/en/exhibition/

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