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Feb 20, 2024
Ericsson Technology Review

Centennial Edition 2024, issue 1

Celebrating a century of transformative innovations

As the publisher of Ericsson Technology Review, I am delighted to release this special centennial issue that celebrates 100 years of making technology insights accessible to the broader public.

In our first issue, published in 1924 as L.M. Ericsson Review, we presented the 500 line selector, an exciting technology innovation designed to enable mass telephony and help people connect with each other more efficiently. The exponential growth in mass telephony in the years and decades that followed became a key enabler of dramatic societal and economic transformation in countries all around the world. Articles from Indonesia, Colombia and Morocco published in early issues make it clear that Ericsson had a strong global presence and perspective right from the start.

Over the decades since, ETR has continued to provide insights about promising technologies and innovations that have led to further societal and economic transformation. In the 1950s, for example, we shared early mobile telephony research in which Ericsson’s MTA (mobile telephony system A) was used to make live calls from cars in the field – an essential step on the journey toward the creation of the global mobile internet, the mass-market app economy and the 5G networks we enjoy today.

Ericsson has a long and proud history of invention and innovation in a wide range of areas, including everything from the creation of a single device used for both talking and listening to being a leader in the development of both electrical switches and automatic traffic lights to inventing Bluetooth in the 1990s – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can learn more about ETR history – and Ericsson’s many innovations over the past 100 years – in two special anniversary articles on pages 4 and 7.

Today, as we look ahead to 2030 and beyond, ETR’s primary focus is on exploring the technology solutions that will drive the evolution from 5G to 6G, enabling fully programmable networks that can deliver limitless, global connectivity. In this issue, for example, you can find our proposal for early alignment on 6G network architecture on page 19.

The exponential traffic growth expected with 6G will create a need for highly energy-efficient, high-interconnect bandwidth within the radio access network. This requires the development of a version of co-packaged optics technology that is suitable for radio applications – requirements you can read about on page 25.

When it comes to improving network efficiency, broad beamforming technology offers several advantages. On page 14 we explain how Ericsson’s unique dual-polarized beamforming technique can be used to create broad Synchronization Signal Block beams with excellent power utilization.

Anyone with an interest in the use of 5G network digital twins for industry integration will appreciate the article about Asset Administration Shell on page 37.

As 5G mobile networks become increasingly complex, effective network management is becoming simultaneously more important and more difficult to achieve. The rApp approach to delivering automation, which you can read about on page 32, has great potential to help communication service providers overcome network management challenges.

In any network – 5G, 6G or otherwise – the importance of quality monitoring cannot be overstated. The article on page 44 explains how the exposure of advanced quality-monitoring capabilities through service application programming interfaces enhances the ability to exchange stakeholder information, making it easier to address specific quality-improvement needs.

At Ericsson, we know from experience that what seems impossible today could be the reality of tomorrow. ETR looks forward to serving as your trusted source of world-leading research and thought leadership in the years and decades ahead. We hope you enjoy this extra special issue of our magazine and that you will share our insights with your colleagues and business partners. You can find both PDF and HTML versions of all the articles at: www.ericsson.com/ericsson-technology-review

Erik Ekudden

Erik Ekudden, CTO Ericsson