AUSTIN, TX -- NI today announced the opening of a corporate lab here to support research into next-generation wireless systems and 5G systems.

The Wireless Innovation Lab, based at the software provider's Austin headquarters, supports ongoing collaborations with top academic and industry research groups participating in its RF/Communications Lead User program.

Researchers at Intel, Lund University, Nokia Networks, NYU Wireless, Samsung, The University of Texas at Austin and TU Dresden are driving significant advances in the development of next-generation wireless systems and furthering research in 5G, NI said. Current demos and projects on display in the lab include mmWave cellular systems, the 5G Massive MIMO Testbed and the LabVIEW Communications System Design Suite.

“At the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG), we have had several research projects with the RF/Communications Lead User team that range from MIMO interference alignment to interference cancellation,” said Robert Heath, professor, PhD, PE, IEEE Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin. “We’ve seen accelerated prototyping on all of these projects and we’re eager to build on the latest research.”

The Wireless Innovation Lab showcases NI’s commitment and investment to help researchers define next-generation wireless communication systems using NI software defined radio platform and design tools. The platform-based approach is said to help reduce the time from theory to results by testing designs in a real-world environment.