NI (Nasdaq: NATI) and NYU WIRELESS today announced that NI has made a sizable donation to the university research team to further mmWave communications, channel measurement and channel emulation research for 5G communications and beyond. As part of the donation, NI will equip NYU WIRELESS labs with hardware and software from its flexible software defined radio (SDR) solutions, which researchers in both industry and academia are already using to help usher in the next generation of 5G wireless communications.

The gift brings together two powerhouses in the race to create wireless technology that can deliver broadband speeds over the air. An important aspect of this partnership is the tight pairing of NI’s hardware and software, which reduces the time to ramp up an SDR system so the NYU WIRELESS group can go beyond simulations to build and evaluate concepts. Thus, NYU WIRELESS has identified system-level bottlenecks and solved problems that are critical in achieving high-throughput wireless systems.

In the last year, the FCC, 3GPP and other standardization bodies for 5G fixed and mobile networks have earmarked mmWave frequencies. Only in the last few years has the mmWave radio spectrum — driven by research at NYU WIRELESS — become widely accepted as holding potential for the next generation of wireless networks. The technology is developing at a rapid pace and is in the midst of many innovations. Because much of the work around mmWave is still in its infancy, many research institutions and companies lack access to the mmWave SDRs and test and measurement equipment necessary to transition this technology from concept and simulation in the lab to a real-world environment.

5G will have a transformational impact on society by enhancing broadband access, connecting billions of devices and creating new applications and services in industries such as smart cities and infrastructures, medicine and transportation.

“The NYU WIRELESS students and faculty were pioneers of early mmWave research,” said James Kimery, director of RF research and SDR marketing at NI. “Our goal with this donation is to help advance this research to solve the challenging problems the industry faces migrating to mmWave for 5G and beyond.”

“NYU WIRELESS and NI have had a long and productive working relationship as NI was a founding sponsor of our wireless center in 2012,” said Professor Theodore (Ted) Rappaport, founding director of NYU WIRELESS and the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor of Electrical Engineering at NYU Tandon. “We are very pleased that NI continues to recognize the quality of our team and the impact our center is making through contributions to the global research community, particularly through our pioneering work on mmWave wireless communications and 5G technologies. We are extremely excited about the donation and our continuing role as a lead user for NI. We look forward to providing NI with feedback on its products and using them for further breakthroughs in the massively broadband future of mmWave wireless communications.”

“mmWave wireless prototyping demands platforms with enormous baseband processing power along with advanced antenna array systems,” said Sundeep Rangan, director of NYU WIRELESS and NYU Tandon associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. “These systems have been extremely difficult to develop in university labs. With NI’s SDR solutions, NYU WIRELESS will now be uniquely capable of rapid prototyping and experimentation to push the envelope in mmWave channel sounding, emulation and communication system design and drive the development and commercialization of mmWave technology in partnership with our network of 18 affiliate sponsors.”

For more information on NI SDR solutions and 5G, visit www.ni.com/5g.