Samsung's Harman starts 5G testing lab in India

Samsung's connected technology solutions provider Harman on Wednesday said it has started a 5G testing lab in India to help companies test their devices for operating them on the next generation network.

The company said its 5G lab enables a holistic, device-to-cloud performance analysis -- enabling chipset conformance testing, pre-certification testing, network operator approval testing, application performance verification and more.

Harman Digital Transformation Services (DTS) senior vice president David Owens said advances in technologies like 5G yield significant opportunity to accelerate innovation across nearly every industry -- from healthcare and manufacturing, transportation to consumer device support.

However, to turn innovation into impact, testing the reliability and effectiveness of new technologies is crucial.

"...with the new comprehensive Harman 5G Testing Lab, technology providers have a one-stop shop to not only test and verify their solutions cohesively from device-to-cloud, but collect additional detailed insight about device performance across multiple variables and truly raise the bar for consumer 5G experiences," Owens said.

The testing lab, set up in Gurugram, will equip technology providers like device manufacturers, chipmakers, telcos and more with the ability to execute a variety of protocol and functional tests, along with validating and examining applications in a real 5G radio environment.

The government had plans to facilitate roll out of 5G commercial services by 2020 but it is yet to firm up its plan on spectrum allocation for the next generation technology.

The Department of Telecom last week approved some applications to start field trials of 5G services.

"Harman's 5G Test Lab enables the device ecosystem including 5G silicon and devices, and the telecom operators to test and validate the readiness of devices and accelerate the roll outs," Harman senior director for DTS Prakash Tripathi said.

Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters