The trial was carried out in an outdoor environment in downtown Seoul
Korean operator SK Telecom and compatriot company Samsung Electronics have successfully completed a 4G LTE and 5G end-to-end network interworking trial. The two companies said the trial was carried out in a real outdoor environment in South Korea’s capital Seoul.
To enable interworking between the two network specifications, the companies used a 4G LTE commercial network deployed in the 2.6 GHz band and newly built 5G network using frequencies of 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz, as well as virtualized core and a test device that supports both 4G and 5G technologies.
During the trial, 360 degree virtual reality video was streamed live between a user in a traveling car and another in SK Telecom’s headquarters.
The two companies said that the successful trial showed that users can experience seamless uninterrupted streaming service when transitioning from between the networks.
“Users will be able to experience seamless communications service regardless of their location with 5G, in which the nationwide deployment of 4G will work together with base stations that support the 3.5GHz band for wide coverage as well as the 28GHz band for ultra-high speed transmission,” said Park Jin-hyo, senior vice president and head of network technology R&D Center of SK Telecom.
“Interworking between 4G and 5G is a prerequisite for the early stage of 5G commercialization. Likewise, the interworking between 3G and 4G was the key driver to foster the 4G eco-system and its commercialization,” said Dongsoo Park, executive vice president and head of global sales & marketing team in networks business, Samsung Electronics.
SK Telecom and Samsung also said they will continue with various tests and trials to come up with ideal commercial scenarios and further identify 5G use cases by maximizing the use of the existing 4G commercialized networks.
