The new 5G trial was performed in a high-speed train by NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo
Japanese company NEC Corporation has contributed to a high-definition video transmission test utilizing 5G connected to a high-speed train. The test was conducted by compatriot firms NTT Communications Corporation, NTT DoCoMo and Tobu Railway. NEC provided a 5G base station.
This 5G test was conducted in Kasukabe City, Saitama, Japan, using a train on the Tobu Skytree Line from December 17 to 21, 2018.
NEC said that 4K and 8K high-definition videos were transmitted from a 5G base station installed along the railroad, using the 4.5 GHz band and 28 GHz band, to a 5G mobile station located inside a train running at approximately 90 kilometers per hour and projected on a large display in real time. In addition, the videos were transmitted to 40 smartphones on the train via wireless LAN, NEC added.
The NEC 5G base station was equipped with a Massive MIMO antenna. The Japanese company said it will continue to work on 5G verification throughout a wide range of use cases in both urban and rural areas.
Last month, NEC Corporation, together with Japanese carrier KDDI Corporation and Obayashi Corporation, successfully carried out an operation in which 5G technology was used to remotely control two construction machines in a cooperative manner.
“This field experiment applied the key features of 5G communications, such as high speed, high capacity, and low-latency communication, to remotely control two different construction machines, a backhoe and a crawler dump, and successfully transported sand,” NEC said in a statement. A total of eight cameras, three 2K forward cameras and one omnidirectional camera for each, were installed on two construction machines in order to transmit images from the cameras and sound data in real time using 5G. The experiment proved that remote control can be performed equivalently to onboard operations, NEC said.
“Meanwhile, an interactive voice control system was introduced in ICT construction for the first time in Japan, and construction machinery using a 5G system was successfully operated remotely only by a voice control system. The experiment confirms that, as a result, the system enables a single operator to operate two construction machines simultaneously, which compensates for the lack of skilled construction workers and contributes to greatly improving work efficiencies.”
NEC, KDDI and Obayashi had carried out a successful field trial in remote construction using 5G and 4K 3D monitoring in Japan in February 2018. The companies said they aim to realize advanced construction technologies utilizing 5G through a number of field experiments.
