Huawei said the 5.5G network aims to provide continuous coverage in three key areas, including Beijing Financial Street, the Beijing Long Distance Call Building and the multipurpose Workers’ Stadium
Chinese carrier China Unicom Beijing and compatriot vendor Huawei said they have successfully deployed a pilot large-scale “5.5G” network in Beijing to provide continuous coverage in three key areas, including Beijing Financial Street, the Beijing Long Distance Call Building and the multipurpose Workers’ Stadium.
Huawei said that testing showed that the network delivered a 10 Gbps downlink peak rate and more than 5 Gbps continuous experience. The pilot network also achieved high- and low-band coordination and flexible deployment of outdoor and indoor 5.5G equipment and supports multiple new applications including glasses-free 3D, ultra-high-definition (UHD) real-time broadcast system, and emerging applications in VR, AR and emerging extended reality (XR) applications, the vendor said.
In early 2024, Beijing’s new 5.5G network underwent comprehensive evaluations during a 5.5G industry event organized by the Beijing Institute of Communications (BIC). Demonstration of applications showed that the indoor 5.5G network at the Beijing Long Distance Call Building supported 4 Gbps uplink rates for glasses-free 3D, UHD shallow compression real-time production system, 8K high uplink live streaming, and XR separated rendering, showcasing the technology’s potential for digital transformation in media and many other industries, according to Huawei.
5G-Advanced technology, or “5.5G”, will pave the way for a wider adoption of connectivity for industrial settings, John Gao, President of Huawei’s 5.5G domain, previously told RCR Wireless News.
Gao stressed that 5.5G will enable wireless production and flexible manufacturing with its low latency and high reliability, thus accelerating the intelligent transformation of industries.
The executive noted that 5.5G will provide larger system capacities, lower-priced modules and large-scale service provisioning capabilities, which will enable scenarios with hundreds of millions of video connections. Gao also noted that scenarios with more extensively ubiquitous asset logistics can be managed using tags of lower costs and power consumption with 5.5G networks.
He went on to say that the deployment of 5.5G technology will pave the way for harmonized communication and sensing networks to support diverse scenarios like smart air, ground, and maritime transportation as well as smart security.
Huawei believes that previous investments made by operators to deploy 5G network infrastructure will be protected with the future launch of 5G-Advanced. Huawei’s president of wireless solution, Cao Ming, previously said during a media roundtable at Huawei’s 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF), held last year in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates
The executive said that 5G-Advanced networks will not require large investments by operators in new network architecture and will be launched using 5G Standalone (SA) networks. He also said that Huawei is working with its partners to make sure that future 5.5G applications, devices and services will be fully compatible with current 5G networks.
Huawei had previously said that it planned to launch a complete set of commercial 5.5G network equipment in 2024.
