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As 5G expands and 6G looms, engineers face growing challenges in power efficiency, hardware flexibility, and bandwidth management. To tackle these issues, industry leaders are forming strategic partnerships, combining expertise to develop more efficient, adaptable, and scalable wireless solutions.
The 6G market size is anticipated to reach around $100 billion by 2033.
R&S and Murata Tackle 6G Power Efficiency
Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) and Murata have partnered to tackle one of the biggest challenges in 5G and 6G technology: power efficiency. As mobile networks evolve to support high-bandwidth and high-frequency signals, the power consumption of RF circuits continues to rise. Traditional hardware-based and analog power management methods have proven inadequate in addressing this issue, particularly for battery-operated devices such as smartphones, IoT sensors, and edge computing nodes.
RF measurement setup to demonstrate the capabilities of Murata’s Digital ET technology.
To solve this problem, Murata has introduced Digital Envelope Tracking (Digital ET) technology, which optimizes power delivery to RF circuits and significantly reduces energy waste. This technology is based on Murata’s proprietary Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) and Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) algorithm. By dynamically adjusting the voltage supplied to RF circuits, Digital ET ensures that power is only used as needed, improving efficiency without compromising performance.
Meanwhile, Rohde & Schwarz, a leader in RF testing and measurement solutions, has developed a high-precision RF measurement setup to validate Murata’s Digital ET technology. This system includes advanced 5G NR-compatible signal generators, signal analyzers, and specialized software designed to assess the power-saving potential of Murata’s solution in real-world conditions. By creating a testing environment that bridges the gap between theoretical efficiency gains and practical hardware applications, the collaboration enables IC manufacturers and network equipment developers to integrate and refine Digital ET technology.
Ceva and Sharp Look Beyond 5G IoT With Asuka SoC
Ceva and Sharp Semiconductor Innovation Corporation (SSIC) have partnered to advance Beyond 5G (6G) IoT technology with Asuka , a highly flexible system-on-chip (SoC) designed for next-generation IoT applications. Announced at Mobile World Congress 2025, this collaboration addresses key limitations in current 5G IoT solutions, particularly the rigidity of traditional SoCs that lack customization and adaptability to evolving standards.
A major challenge in cellular IoT is the lack of specialized connectivity solutions that allow developers to tailor hardware for specific applications. Most existing 5G SoCs function as "black boxes," restricting customization and making it difficult to optimize devices for specialized use cases. The Asuka SoC, developed through this partnership, takes a fundamentally different approach by leveraging Ceva’s PentaG platform, a software-defined radio (SDR) architecture that enables unprecedented customization. Unlike fixed-function SoCs, Asuka allows developers to modify communication protocols and functions through software updates while maintaining compliance with emerging standards.
Ceva’s scalable 5G modem platform IP, Ceva-PentaG2 Max.
Ceva brings its expertise in wireless communication technology, contributing the Ceva-PentaG2 platform, which integrates digital signal processors (DSPs) and accelerators optimized for low-power cellular IoT applications such as RedCap. This enables efficient signal processing and supports a range of applications, from ultra-low-power IoT devices to high-performance mobile broadband. Sharp, on the other hand, will apply its semiconductor manufacturing expertise to transform Ceva’s IP into a production-ready SoC, ensuring that the solution meets real-world performance and integration requirements.
For engineers, Asuka may represent a highly adaptable platform that simplifies IoT development and reduces the complexity of integrating new connectivity solutions.
MathWorks and Altera Partner Optimize Wireless With AI
MathWorks and Altera have partnered to integrate AI into the development of 5G and 6G wireless systems , focusing on reducing front-haul traffic and improving network efficiency. One of the biggest challenges in modern wireless networks is the massive volume of channel state information (CSI) data, which consumes significant bandwidth and limits scalability. This issue drives up infrastructure costs and complicates network expansion.
The partnership addresses this challenge by using AI-based autoencoders to compress CSI data while preserving critical communication information. MathWorks contributes its Deep Learning HDL Toolbox and HDL Coder, enabling engineers to implement deep learning models efficiently on Altera’s FPGA hardware. Altera enhances this with its FPGA AI Suite, which provides custom AI inference accelerators optimized for wireless applications. The integration of MathWorks’ software with Altera’s OpenVINO toolkit streamlines AI deployment, making it easier for engineers to implement and optimize AI-driven solutions for 5G and 6G.
View of Deep Learning HDL Toolbox.
This collaboration benefits engineers by simplifying the transition from algorithm design to hardware implementation, significantly reducing development time. The AI-powered compression technique helps maintain network performance while reducing bandwidth requirements, ultimately lowering deployment costs. By combining AI and FPGA-based acceleration, MathWorks and Altera provide a future-proof solution that enhances the scalability and efficiency of next-generation wireless networks.
