Vodafone introduced a prototype 5G radio based on a credit card sized Raspberry Pi personal computer and an equally small, advanced silicon chipset. The unit is designed to extend 5G coverage in small businesses and households.
The new system, which was developed at Vodafone’s new European R&D Centre in Málaga, combines a Raspberry Pi 4 with a small 5G compatible embeddable software-defined radio (SDR) circuit board, made by UK-based specialist, Lime Microsystems.
Vodafone said it aims to make 5G-based mobile private networks (MPNs) more accessible to the 22 million small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe. It could also offer households extended coverage providing an additional fast broadband link at times when many residents are online simultaneously.
Santiago Tenorio, Vodafone’s Director of Network Architecture, said: “We looked at what Raspberry Pi did for computing, in terms of making it more accessible to people of all ages, and we wanted to do the same with 5G.”
