5G has been one of the hottest topics over the last 12 months and was seen in many booths at Mobile World Congress this year. There were live demos in the booths of Keysight, NI, R&S, Anritsu, Cobham/Aeroflex, China Mobile, Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and others at the event. While this is a hot topic for the test/measurement companies who have to lead the industry development cycle, the semiconductor companies are only just warming up to the topic as they want to see the standards worked out before investing too much in R&D.

So if you want to learn more about 5G, there are 3 excellent opportunities coming up featuring discussions and presentations on 5G from the world’s leading experts.  The Brooklyn 5G Summit takes place April 8-10 at NYU Wireless which is leading the way in mmWave channel modeling and other areas of 5G research.  Dr. Ted Rappaport is a leading expert in these areas of research and hosts the event each year along with Nokia Networks. The 2nd Summit will build on what was achieved last year and focus on spectrum assets above 6 GHz and progress in channel modeling at these higher frequencies, massive MIMO and beamforming solutions for 5G. I was at this event last year and can tell you the presentations cover the latest developments from leading researchers worldwide. Here is a link to the agenda.

Second is EDI CON China taking place April 14-16 in Beijing Including a full day 5G Forum on April 15. The Forum kicks off with keynotes from China Mobile and Ericsson followed by a panel session, 8 technical sessions and 2 workshops.  The panel session will feature experts from Keysight, R&S, NI, Shanghai Tech, China Mobile and Ericsson in a round table format with Q&A from the audience. The sessions and workshops will cover massive MIMO, flexible measurement systems, rapid proto-typing systems, phased array modules, timing/synchronization challenges, signal/spectrum analysis, HetNets, mmWave/UWB testing and SDR. Here is the 5G Forum schedule. You can register for free for the entire event by using the promo code MWJC15VIP.

The third event takes place at IMS 2015 in Phoenix where Microwave Journal is again organizing a 5G Panel on May 20 from noon-1:00 pm in the MicroApps theater on the exhibition floor. The panel session is titled “Path to 5G: Design and Test Challenges” and includes test/measurement experts from Keysight, R&S and NI who will address flexible testing platforms for rapid proto-typing along with partnerships with research organizations evaluating 5G technologies and their results to date. Semiconductor experts form MACOM and ADI will also be on the panel and address the device challenges such as wideband, mmWave transceivers including the integration, performance and cost issues needed to achieve 5G goals. The panel is moderated by the Director of Advanced Semiconductor Technologies from Strategy Analytics, Eric Higham. This event is open to anyone attending IMS for free and here is a link to more information.