By Chris Bergey, SVP and GM, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm

This has been a milestone year in the adoption of 5G. Commercial 5G networks are now live in more than 60 markets around the world. On top of that, the number of 5G connections is expected to reach 692 million globally by the end of this year. This is only the beginning and in the coming years more infrastructure will be required to achieve the true potential of 5G; the majority of which will be powered by Arm-based chips. These networks will evolve to enable more complex technology capabilities, improved provisioning and enhanced service offerings that will unlock new use-cases and revenue streams.

The rapid pace of deployment underscores how critical it is that we achieve faster development of network and edge infrastructure solutions to unleash the benefits of 5G to everyone, including those in emerging economies with limited or no access to connectivity. To do this, operators are seeking greater choice and flexibility in future systems, and Arm is positioned to help deliver that through our vast and robust partner ecosystem.

With support from key players in the industry, today we are announcing the Arm 5G Solutions Lab in partnership with Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, business re-engineering services and solutions, and one of the key 5G systems integrators for Communication Service Providers and Engineering R&D partner for Communications Technology Providers.

The Arm 5G Solutions Lab will focus on accelerating innovation for network infrastructure by providing a place for Arm's hardware and software ecosystem partners to come together and demonstrate end-to-end solutions in a live test environment. Given the incredible momentum that’s been building within the OpenRAN community, we see a need to enable operators and enterprises looking to deploy private networks to gain easy access to multi-vendor platforms. The Lab will provide secure access to partners and operators to validate solutions and gain confidence in new technologies across a range of critical use-cases such as small cells, macro cells, private 5G networks, cloud RAN, RAN Intelligence Controller (RIC), and core network.

The power of collaboration

The speeds and feeds of a strong network solution is undoubtedly important, but to further enable telcos and vendors to deploy an infrastructure that can support the promise and potential of a 5G world, it requires participation across the industry.

The Arm 5G Solutions Lab serves as a confluence where software and hardware developers, operators, and cloud service providers can come together to define KPIs, blueprints and deployment guides to help bring innovations in 5G alive and ultimately, generate revenue faster. We envision the Lab as a catalyst for the Arm ecosystem to develop and deploy a 5G network infrastructure that leverages the inherent benefits of performance, power, and cost of the Arm architecture.

This initiative is only possible with the help of the Arm ecosystem, and already we’ve seen incredible support for the Lab by a broad set of industry leaders from cloud service providers like Google Cloud, silicon and hardware providers like EdgeQ, GIGABYTE, Marvell, NVIDIA, NXP, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. , operators including DISH and Vodafone, software partners such as Accelleran, Mavenir, Parallel Wireless, Radisys, Saankhya Labs, and Tech Mahindra, as well as organizations like GSMA. I look forward to seeing how ecosystem support evolves to help fulfill the need for faster innovation and agility in network technology.

We expect the Arm 5G Solutions Lab will be available to developers by early 2022. For those wanting more details on how to get involved please visit the Arm 5G Solutions Lab page. Those attending Arm DevSummit this week can hear more details about the Lab in the 5G Ecosystem Campfire. We encourage you to tune in to learn more.