Chinese tech giant Huawei and NTT DOCOMO, INC., has managed to deploy a successful joint field trial for 5G mobile communications over a long distance with 39 GHz Millimetre Wave (mmWave) band in one of Japan’s largest cities, Yokohama.
The trial’s downlink data transmissions was met at a top speed of over 2 Gbps on a testing vehicle that was fitted with a user equipment with phone capabilities while driving at around 20 km/hr.
The implication of this trial is the possibility of testing additional applications for the deployment of 5G mmWave. It should be noted that this technology leverages long-distance mobility transmission to spur faster development of 5G enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and connectivity of massive data rate. This can be done while taking advantage of existing macro-cellular sites investment by mobile telecoms operators.
“Long-distance transmission over 39GHz mmWave will enable 5G network deployments in a large scale. It opens up the new stage of the 39GHz mmWave technology and will deliver the ultra-fast experience with 5G high data speed,” says Takehiro Nakamura, Vice President and Managing Director of 5G Laboratory at NTT DOCOMO.
“It is technological challenge and opportunity to use the long-distance transmission of 5G mmWave Mobile Communications technology, the wireless industry will start using the new spectrum 100 times broader than current network to foster next wave of innovations. The 5G mmWave technology will help our customer to reuse the existing network infrastructure, especially for sites resource, to protect their investment. This test is first time successfully to verify the long-distance transmission of 5G mmWave, Huawei will continue to innovate to make 5G mmWave a success,” said Dr. Wen Tong, Huawei Fellow and CTO of Huawei Wireless Networks.
The joint exercise showcased that 39 GHz mmWave can be applied for extended distance transmission in stationary and mobile cases even in urban centres with complex deployment environment.
Huawei is one of the top telecommunication and networking companies that are involved in 5G development. The corporation has jointly worked with DOCOMO in conducting multiple large-scale field trials since 2014.
At the moment, the development of 5G has been in a new era, where the primary version of 3GPP 5G standard Release-15 is expected to be finalized in 2018. This means that current tests are based on pre-commercial purposes.
The earliest we’ll see this technology is 2020 and beyond.
