How is 5G built and used in China? Meng Wanzhou revealed that Huawei has begun to lay out the next steps... curtain. In 5G | base station | China
Today, the 3-day 2023 Shanghai World Mobile Communication Conference has come to an end. Affected by the epidemic, MWC Shanghai ceased operations in 2020 and 2022, and reduced its scale in 2021. This year marks the first time since 2019 that MWC Shanghai has fully returned to offline hosting. In 2019, China officially issued a 5G commercial license. Four years later, how is China's 5G network built and used? This conference has become a sample for observing the development of 5G in China.
From 5G to 5.5G
Over the past four years, the achievements of China's 5G network construction have become one of the most concerning issues for many attending guests.
At the 5G Development and Innovation Forum, Wang Zhiqin, Vice President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, stated that as of May this year, the total number of 5G base stations in China reached 2.844 million, accounting for 25.3% of the total number of mobile base stations, and the coverage rate of county-level and above administrative regions reached 100%. The construction of virtual private networks in the 5G industry has accelerated. As of March this year, the total number of virtual private networks in the 5G industry has exceeded 16000, covering multiple fields such as industry, ports, energy, and healthcare.
With the gradual expansion of application boundaries, 5G commercialization has also entered a new stage of 5G Advanced. Wang Zhiqin said that currently, the development of 5G has entered the second half. As an evolutionary technology between 5G and 6G, 5G Advanced will enter a critical stage of connecting the past and the future.
5G-Advanced refers to the expansion and enhancement of 5G, also known as "5G-A" or "5.5G". Huawei Vice Chairman and rotating Chairman Meng Wanzhou stated in a keynote speech at the conference that global 5G commercialization has been leading value creation for four years, and 5.5G is an inevitable path for the evolution of 5G networks.
"5G has changed people's lives and work, becoming an important engine for the development of the digital economy." Cao Ming, President of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, said that the speed of 5G is unprecedented, and in just three years, it has completed six years of development for 4G. And 6G may arrive as early as 2030, before which, "5.5G will bring new leaps to the mobile industry, bringing more possibilities for smart living and the digital economy."
During the conference, Yang Chaobin, Huawei's director and president of ICT products and solutions, announced that in 2024, Huawei will launch a full set of 5.5G network equipment for commercial use. This also signifies that the communication industry is about to enter the 5.5G era.
Enhance the "last 100 meters" experience
After four years of commercial use, China's mobile network has entered the stage of tackling 5G deep coverage. Besides how well 5G is built, another question that is more related to user experience is, what is the user experience of 5G?
According to Yang Lifan, deputy general manager of Beijing Unicom, whether 5G is used well or not depends on whether users can improve their "last 100 meters" network experience in complex scenes such as buildings, venues and residential areas. In the MWC Shanghai China Unicom exhibition area, Beijing Unicom and Huawei brought the results of the 5GCapital innovation project, released a new definition of smart operation network, comprehensively enhanced the breadth, depth and height of 5G network, and loaded "AI brain" into 5G network to realize smart operation.
Specifically, for complex scenarios such as buildings, venues, and residential areas, the "AI brain" can achieve finer granularity in network evaluation, and based on big data and intelligent algorithms, achieve precise insights into 5G three-dimensional coverage. Through intelligent planning, network problems and engineering solutions are matched with building blocks to achieve the highest cost-effective planning. During operation, the network can identify base station faults, locate the cause, and automatically adjust based on the surrounding base stations and wireless environment, achieving network optimization and optimal efficiency.
"We have equipped advanced networks with an 'AI brain', providing comprehensive insight into network pain points, utilizing agile algorithms to maximize network efficiency, implementing self-healing optimization through agile networks, and improving user experience through flexible operations," said Yang Lifan.
In addition, Beijing Unicom has taken the lead in deploying 5G high-frequency products in hot scenes through the use of Huawei's ultra large bandwidth and ultra large antenna array technology, achieving simultaneous live streaming with four 8K high-definition cameras, and reaching a peak of 2Gbps in the uplink, laying the foundation for the earliest commercial deployment of 10Gbps capacity.
"Facing the future, technology is moving towards complex large-scale systems, which requires matching key technologies based on scene characteristics, and implementing system engineering to continuously build 5G commercial success." Meng Wanzhou said, specifically, there are four breakthrough directions: first, matching key technologies based on scene characteristics, and implementing system engineering. The second is to delve into the scene, understand pain points, and adopt systems engineering thinking. The third is to collaborate with customers, developers, peers, partners, and other upstream and downstream parties, focusing on the entire cycle of research and development, procurement, supply, and marketing. The fourth is to seize modeling, solving and optimization, tools and methods to build sustained success in 5G business.
