Telecom Review was invited to attend an exclusive media and analyst roundtable during MWC 2024 where Eric Zhao, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Huawei Wireless Solution, shared in-depth insights on 5.5G development and how Huawei has equipped itself with the technology’s commercial products and solutions.
“There is a consensus that 5.5G will begin commercial deployment in 2024. This is based on the progress in standard, spectrum, terminals, services, products and key technologies,” started off Zhao.
5.5G Is Now— and Global Commercial Use is Accelerating
During his presentation, Zhao showcased the 10 times enhanced capabilities of 5.5G— 10 Gbps download speed, 1 Gbps upload speed, and 100 billion connections— as well as three new capabilities which include harmonized communication sensing (HCS), passive IoT (P-IoT), and native intelligence.
Anticipated for commercialization in 2024, Release 18 will be finalized during H1 2024. Also, “spectrum is the key to achieving 10Gbps experience for 5.5G,” commented Zhao. The integration of all bands into 5G will lead to a comprehensive and pervasive experience, achieved through the incorporation of new bands such as mmWave and U6G, as well as the amalgamation of legacy spectrum. 3CC technologies are fully-verified globally, with the support of mature 3CC terminals. Notably, within the ecosystem, mainstream vendors have completed multiple rounds of iteration to achieve 7 Gbps on smartphones and 10 Gbps on CPEs.
Three Native Capabilities to Enhance 5.5G Networks
Zhao also touched upon the three native capabilities to enhance 5.5G network performance: Native 10 Gbps, Native Green, and Native Intelligence. When asked how ‘Native’ is defined and its significance in the 5.5G evolution, Zhao answered, “First, 5.5G is supposed to deliver a better experience and faster speeds, so that’s Native 10 Gbps… second, with the integration of more bands, more interfaces are also being introduced. These will lead to the challenge of energy consumption. That's why we propose Native Green— a critical design for 5.5G ‘0 Bit 0 Watt’ network. Native green means that we must think about how to save energy on the very first day of the network [deployment] and the equipment [installation].”
As for the third aspect of native intelligence, “That means we bring intelligence to the wireless networks. First, we would like to introduce intelligence to the O&M, so that the efficiency and the preciseness can be improved. As a result, the telecom operators’ OPEX can be reduced,” added Zhao.
As networks get more and more complex, which is the case for 5.5G (and even the futuristic 6G), “we need intelligence to cope with the increased complexity. And that's why we have also identified Native Intelligence as a key feature for our solution design.”
In conclusion, Zhao emphasized that “Huawei provides innovative GigaGreen and IntelligentRAN solutions with three key native capabilities to help operators evolve to 5.5G smoothly and efficiently. Let us look forward and embrace the 5.5G era, and start a new wireless journey together!”