Mobile telecommunication operators, infrastructure suppliers, car manufacturers, and local councils are all seeking to understand the benefit from the leap in bandwidth promised by 5G technologies, and are lining up to use the very latest 5G evaluation technology now available at the University of Warwick.

WMG at the University of Warwick has just acquired the UK’s most advanced diagnostic and testing platform for a key part of the 5G spectrum - mmWave. This technology promises to deliver a step change in the amount of data that can be wirelessly transmitted, opening up opportunities for a range of new services and products, including those associated with enabling connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs).

This has been provided by a £250,000 WMG Centre HVM Catapult award for facilities and people alongside an equipment collaboration with National Instruments (NI) for their mmWave technology platform.

WMG’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicles research team are already working with a range of industrial partners on connectivity, verification and validation, and the understanding and optimisation of user/customer interaction with driverless technology. This new facility will further enhance WMG’s vison to be the UKs “go to” CAV development platform providing unrivalled research and testing that will accelerate product introduction, infrastructure design and implementation. The technology developed will be transferable to other sectors beyond automotive.

A team of researchers led by Dr Matthew Higgins, Associate Professor at WMG, is now integrating the new 5G mmWave technology platform from NI into their current projects.

WMG’s Dr Matthew Higgins said:

“Core to our methodology is the ability to evaluate early in the development cycle the potential use of 5G mmWave communications systems within project partners’ products. This new collaboration deploys NI’s latest test and measurement solutions as such activity providing us with both state of the art hardware, capable of transmitting real information in the frequency bands of choice, as well as access to the control software, providing agility when being deployed in real scenarios.”

Dr Erik Kampert, HVM Catapult Senior Research Fellow added that:

“Working with NI and being granted first access to their leading platforms allows us to be ahead of the CR&D curve. This further enhances our standing as the preferred partner within the UKs CAV community.”

James Kimery, Director of Wireless Research and SDR marketing at NI said:

“Our flexible platform and mmWave technology has been used by wireless researchers globally to develop 5G candidate technologies. We’re excited to work with the University of Warwick and Dr. Higgins’ team of researchers to validate the importance of connectivity as the world moves towards intelligent transportation.”

Notes to editors:

Image: Dr Erik Kampert, Dr Matthew Higgins, Dr Jakobus Groenewald receive the 5G mmWave platform inside WMG's 3xD Simulator (credit WMG, University of Warwick)

About WMG, University of Warwick

WMG is a world leading research and education group and an academic department of the University of Warwick, established by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 in order to reinvigorate UK manufacturing through the application of cutting edge research and effective knowledge transfer.

WMG has pioneered an international model for working with industry, commerce and public sectors and holds a unique position between academia and industry. The Group’s strength is to provide companies with the opportunity to gain a competitive edge by understanding a company’s strategy and working in partnership with them to create, through multidisciplinary research, ground-breaking products, processes and services.

Every year WMG provides education and training to schoolchildren through to senior executives. There is a growing part-time undergraduate programme for apprentices, as well as full-time undergraduates. The postgraduate programmes have over 2,000 students, in the UK and through centres in China, India, Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia.

For more information visit www.wmg.warwick.ac.uk

About NI

NI (ni.com) empowers engineers and scientists with a software-centric platform that incorporates modular hardware and an expansive ecosystem. This proven approach puts users firmly in control of defining what they need to accelerate their system design within test, measurement and control. NI’s solution helps build high-performance systems that exceed requirements, quickly adapt to change and ultimately improve the world.