Can you share some insights into 5G networks’ innovation roadmap?
The development of global 5G in network deployment, ecology and experience is beyond imagination. Whether for individuals, families or organisations, 5G is creating unprecedented value.
Huawei proposed 5.5G for the first time at the 11th Global Mobile Broadband Forum in 2020 and F5.5G (or fixed 5.5G) at the Global Analyst Summit in April this year, moreover, Huawei deepened the connotation of 5.5G and advocated a comprehensive approach to 5.5G recently in Huawei Win-Win innovation week. Key characteristics of 5.5G are 10 Gbps experience, 100 billion connections, and native intelligence. However, comprehensive 5.5G are evolution of multiple fields, including wireless, optical, datacom, cloud computing, and storage, to meet diversified and optimal requirements in the future.
5G is already transforming many industries and consumer experiences. How is 5.5G different and what improvements will it enable?
First, 5.5G will deliver a 10 Gbps experience through MIMO technology that boasts larger bandwidth, higher spectrum efficiency, and higher-order modulation. With next-generation technologies like FTTR, 50G PON, and 800G, F5.5G will bring a 10 Gbps experience everywhere.
At the same time, the evolution of IP networks is required to meet the rising demand for computing power by intelligent applications. As digitalisation takes hold, intelligent applications will see large-scale commercialisation and computing resources will be located across multiple clouds. Enterprises need to make use of computing power from multiple clouds at lower costs, with greater agility and flexibility. To this end, innovations based on IPv6 are required to help the industry thrive.
Second, 5.5G will go beyond connectivity to include sensing, resulting in a wealth of new scenarios and applications. Wireless and fibre sensing technologies will be used in vehicle-road collaboration and environment monitoring. Passive IoT will integrate cellular and passive tag technologies to create 100 billion potential connections. 5.5G core networks will redefine architectures and foundational technologies to enable new service scenarios, such as industry private networks, industrial field networks, and new calling.
Third, diversified computing will enable diversified applications. In the 5.5G era, computing architectures will be redefined to increase computing efficiency by 10-fold through chip engineering and full peer-to-peer interconnection architectures.
Fourth, data-centric storage will break through existing limits in storage architecture. Future storage will improve storage performance by 10-fold through data-centric hardware and software architecture and diversified data application acceleration engines.
Fifth, full-stack AI native will make L4 highly autonomous driving networks (ADNs) a reality. ADNs have become a common goal of the industry. Full-stack AI native, from network elements to networks and services, will accelerate breakthroughs in ADN technology. Innovation results, such as compression algorithms for hundreds of network indicators and unknown fault identification by AI foundation models, will be widely applied in the 5.5G era.
Lastly, developments in green technology and system-level innovation will increase energy efficiency. The ITU-T has adopted Network Carbon data/energy intensity (NCIe) as the unified energy efficiency metric to guide the industry’s green development roadmap. Huawei has developed innovative solutions for green sites, green networks, and green operations to increase network capacity and cut energy consumption per bit. These solutions will empower operators in the 5.5G era.
What are some of the use cases for 5.5G and how can operators enable these innovations?
5.5G means not only enhancing eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC, but also means providing new capabilities of sensing, passive IoT, positioning, and native intelligence.
For consumers, 10 Gbps, millisecond-level latency and interactive capabilities enabled by 5.5G will satisfy various needs for entertainment and connectivity, XR Pro and metaverse will become new normal applications.
On the industrial front, digitalisation has already entered the fast lane. AI will be fully integrated into enterprise production processes, and the size of the 5.5G IoT market will grow rapidly, sensing will be integrated, for example, speed and distance measurements and imaging will be enhanced to further improve exception identification for smart transportation, geo-fencing for smart factories, and other industry applications, ultimately enabling digital replica.
Operators, therefore, need to prepare for this imminent shift. Operators should work with industry partners to better understand new consumer and enterprise use cases to determine how 5.5G technology and its innovations can serve the needs and requirements of end users.
Intelligent networking lays the foundation for digital transformation
The issue of spectrum is central to 5.5G and beyond. How should regulators tackle spectrum allocation?
Wider and more spectral resources are required to realize 10 Gbps downlink and 1 Gbps uplink. GSMA recommends an average of 2GHz mid-band per country is necessary as spectrum reserve for mobile services in the next decade. In the long-term, more capacity in mid-band is needed as 5G evolves, with 6GHz the most optimal frequency to accommodate future growth. Such decisions will bring massive opportunities for regional economies. Research shows that mid-band 5G (3.5GHz – 6GHz) could deliver $610 billion in GDP growth in 2030 (63.5 percent of the total 5G benefit). Huawei is innovating the Extremely Large Antenna Area Massive-MIMO, also known as the eLAA MIMO, to improve spectrum efficiency to ensure that even when running on the higher frequency band, operators can still provide the same level of coverage as the C-band.
In the meantime, telecom operators can create new value with their existing band. Huawei offers MBSC (Multi-band serving cell) technology, a virtual large carrier technology that aggregates the fragmented sub 6GHz bands to provide 10Gbps speed and experience to users. Additionally, our multi-carrier enhancement is designed to ensure that when the network load or the needs are low, some areas can be dynamically activated or deactivated.
Advances in networks made have been based on global cooperation. Do you see progress in outlining global 5.5G standards?
From 2G to 5G today, unified global standards have been the cornerstone of a prosperous telecommunication industry. Unfortunately, in the last few years, we have seen deglobalisation starting to creep in, which can derail this evolution. Simply put, fragmentation of standardisation policies creates inconvenience and higher costs for users. 3GPP, ETSI, ITU and other standardisation organisations working together to develop a unified standard will deliver better consumer value. So, we need to work with industry partners to define the vision and roadmap for 5.5G. That’s how the 5.5G business can further take off.
