SK Telecom and Nokia Networks announced they have successfully verified a co-developed core 5G technology, and have established their joint 5G R&D center in the nation.
The companies have verified the performance of a user plane and control plane separation technique, which restructures core network architecture into a hybrid network model.
With the technology core network architecture is divided into distributed user plane functions controlled by centralized control plane functions for optical delivery of huge volumes of data.
Physical separation of the control and user planes of LTE core network architecture is an essential building block to 5G, which will require a radical redesign of core network architecture, the companies said.
SK Telecom and Nokia also revealed they have opened their joint 5G research laboratory at Nokia's Korean headquarters. The lab will focus on research into core 5G technologies including gigabit-level data transmission technology and cloud-based virtualized base stations.
As announced in January, the two companies also plan to open a 5G testbed by the end of the year, to evaluate 5G technologies ahead of the anticipated commercial launch of the technology in 2020.
The ITU recently released its vision and roadmap for 5G, specifying data rates of 10Gbps, or 20Gpbs under certain circumstances and scenarios.