Page 135 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Operators Tip 5G-Advanced to Boost XR, IoT

Executives from China Mobile and Orange opened up on how best smartwatches, wearable medical monitors, AR/VR goggles. Graves
to deliver 5G-Advanced, a journey that aims to enable a range of noted power efficiency “is a critical element for our network” and
services including XR and the metaverse, along with benefits for the so Orange is looking to 5G-Advanced to contribute to its carbon
IoT. 5G-Advanced, as part of 3GPP Release 18 in 2024, is flagged emission and net zero goals, with the technology offering a means
as the next milestone in the 5G era and an evolution of the latest to optimize RAN “power performance and increase efficiency
generation of mobile technology. During a webinar accompanying with automation”. Each operator also discussed combining TDD
the publishing of a GSMA white paper on 5G-Advanced, Nan Hu, and FDD networks, a move Nan said will “change the paradigm
a vice director at China Mobile Research Institute, cited the gains for spectrum utilization” by suppressing interference within cells.
made through collaboration in the operator’s deployment of Testing with prototypes achieved upload data rates of 1.4Gb/s
standalone (SA) 5G and explained the same approach would be with a 4ms delay, he said.
key to unlocking the next phase in the technology’s development.
China Mobile is developing cross-layer technology designed to
cope with the demands XR will place on data rates and latency,
which Nan noted will require “massive radio resource”. The
cross-layer approach essentially enables services and RAN to be
aware of each other to boost capacity and reduce latency. Nan
said China Mobile is targeting a ten-time hike in capacity over
current 5G networks, and latency of between 5ms and 10ms.
Another “hot topic” for 5G-Advanced will be integrated sensing
and communications (ISAC). Nan cited autonomous driving as a
potential beneficiary, with improved distance detection and image
resolution over current systems. Benoit Graves, head of 3GPP
RAN standardization with Orange, noted the IoT is another area
operators are focusing on, with 5G-Advanced expected to deliver
benefits for so-called reduced capability (red cap) devices including

NTT Docomo Claims First 5G Network with Both Sub-6 GHz and mmWave

Japanese telco NTT Docomo claims to have the world's consumers and enterprises, offering both high speed in dense
first commercial 5G Standalone (SA) network that enables urban areas and seamless wide-area coverage. Qualcomm claims
smartphones to simultaneously use both mid-band (sub-6 GHz) that users with specific handsets are already seeing download
and mmWave frequencies, known as 5G NR Dual Connectivity. speeds of up to 4.9Gbps and upload speeds up to 1.1Gbps in
The announcement was made with wireless technology company urban areas when using the new network. These handsets are the
Qualcomm, which was keen to showcase that smartphones Sharp Aquos R7, Samsung Galaxy S22, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra,
powered by its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform are able to exploit the and Sony Xperia 1 IV, all of which are based on its Snapdragon 8
full speed of the new network. Operational since the end of August, Gen 1 platform. Durga Malladi, Qualcomm Senior VP for Cellular
NTT Docomo's 5G NR-DC network is pitched as a significant Modems and Infrastructure, said that with 5G NR-DC, NTT Docomo
milestone in the evolution of 5G. This is because 5G services can deliver to users the high capacity of 5G mmWave and wide
typically operate using either sub-6 GHz frequency bands, or the coverage of 5G mid-band. Meanwhile, NTT Docomo EVP and CTO
mmWave frequencies that offer higher speeds but typically lower Naoki Tani said that his firm would continue to bring cutting-edge
range. Many network operators around the world have chosen technologies to customers to make mobile environments more
to deploy 5G in mid-band frequencies alongside existing 4G comfortable. Qualcomm said it will continue to develop new 5G
networks, and the success of these has somewhat sidelined the Standalone technologies, including network slicing technology
mmWave technology, which has largely been confined to networks and developing faster speeds through NR-DC. The company is also
operating in the US, such as Verizon. In fact, the GSM Association working with Ericsson and Thales on technology that could deliver
felt compelled last year to launch an accelerator initiative to drive a 5G network service from low-Earth orbit satellites. This is based
awareness of mmWave technology to "underline the role that on changes in Release 17 of the 5G specifications from the 3GPP
mmWave plays in unlocking the full potential of 5G." According telecommunications standards body, which allow for satellite-
to Qualcomm and NTT Docomo, the combination of sub-6 GHz driven 5G non-terrestrial networks (5G NTNs).
and mmWave bands brings to market new capabilities for both

135 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022