As part of China’s official 5G testing, ZTE has completed tests of a number of key 5G wireless technologies.
While a 5G standard has yet to be fully specified, a number of key 5G wireless technologies have already been identified and tests are multiplying as both vendors and operators across the globe want to take the lead. Chinese telecommunications vendor ZTE has now announced the company completed tests of a number of key wireless 5G technologies. ZTE claims to be the first vendor to have completed high-frequency tests both in indoor and outdoor coverage scenarios and mobile beam tracking field tests.
These tests mark the start of China’s official 5G testing, which aims to see the launch of commercial 5G technology in the country in 2020. “As a global pioneer in the 5G field, ZTE has been conducting comprehensive research and investing heavily in core key 5G technologies. In full support of China’s 5G strategies, ZTE spares no efforts to promote the research of 5G technologies as well as industrial development, aiming to become one of the first suppliers of commercial 5G equipment, and laying a solid foundation for the commercial launch of 5G in 2020,” said Bo Gang, general manager of 5G products at ZTE.
Key 5G wireless technologies test results
ZTE’s testing included the vendor’s own tagging technologies, 5G high and low frequency technologies and key air interface technologies such as high-frequency communications, multi-user shared access (MUSA), new waveforms and massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO).
Regarding high-frequency communication, ZTE said its prototype, which supports automatic beam capture, beam tracking and adaptive beam switching, performed well in indoor and outdoor line of sight (LOS) and non-LOS scenarios, reaching single-user peak rate in the GB/s levels.
ZTE also said the test results for the MUSA technology proposed by ZTE were promising for high-capacity Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. ZTE’s MUSA technology introduces short spreading codes and also allows for grant-free transmission and high overload. “Test results showed that, compared with long term evolution (LTE), MUSA supports random escape under 300 percent overload conditions in uplink grant-free transmission tests, achieving strong and stable performance indicators,” said ZTE.
Finally, ZTE said massive MIMO technology tests, using pilot beam and adaptive codebook feedback, achieved a spectral efficiency four to six times higher than traditional macro base stations.
China’s 5G testing
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is leading China’s official 5G testing, which is implemented by China’s so-called IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group. Testing will happen in two successive phases. The first phase will be about technology R&D tests and take place between 2016 and 2018. This phase will consist of key technology verification, technical solution verification, and system verification. The second phase will take place between 2018 and 2020 and will be about product R&D tests. “China’s 5G test involves comprehensive research and demonstration of key 5G technologies, and promotes the standardisation of competitive solutions, to accelerate the industrialisation process and achieve the goals of commercial 5G use in 2020”, said ZTE.
IIoT News Recap: Nissan, Enel, Nuvve launch commercial V2G hub in Denmark; NEVS new player in the autonomous driving car race; Huawei Joins ZigBee, Mobiliya LoRa; Millimeter wave technology market to grow 43 percent to 2022
V2G: Nissan, Enel, Nuvve launch commercial V2G hub in Denmark
Nissan, Enel, Nuvve, together with Danish Technical University and Danish grid operator Energinet, have launched a commercial vehicle-to-grid (V2G) hub in Denmark. The V2G platform licensed by Nuvve has been developed by the University of Delaware. Nissan is providing the cars and Enel the charging stations. In total, ten electric cars and ten V2G charging stations will be providing commercial V2G services in the Danish city of Frederiksberg. “This is a low-cost way to provide electricity storage for the electric grid, making large-scale renewable energy more practical,” said Willett Kempton, professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and research director of the University’s Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration.
Autonomous driving: NEVS new player in the autonomous driving car race
Swedish-Chinese car maker Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), formerly known as Saab Automobiles, is to build autonomous electric vehicles, 8till5 reports (in Swedish). Anna Haupt, co-founder of airbag-based cycle helm company Hövding, has been recruited to lead the development of NEVS’ s self-driving car efforts. NEVS is expected to present its first electric vehicle next year. A self-driving vehicle could take up to five years to be developed.
IoT standards: Huawei Joins ZigBee, Mobiliya LoRa
Huawei announced the company joined ZigBee Alliance’s board of directors. “The ZigBee Alliance is heading in the right direction with regards to the IoT, and we are throwing our support behind ZigBee technology as the cornerstone of this new era of device intelligence,” said David Randolph Hoelscher, chief marketing director, IoT Platform, at Huawei. “The Internet of Things is changing how we interact with everyday items around us, and to reach the full potential driving this shift, industries – and more specifically, manufacturers – must coordinate to ensure the user experience is at the heart of every innovation. We see the ZigBee Alliance fostering that critical commitment, and are proud to join this board and be part of an organization that is international in makeup and purposefully striving toward collaboration for the good of the IoT industry,” he added. Huawei becomes Zigbee’s fifteenth member of the board of directors. Other board members include Comcast Cable, Itron, Landis+Gyr, NXP Semiconductors, Philips, Schneider Electric, Somfy and Texas Instruments.
Software company Mobilyia announced for its part it had joined the LoRa Alliance. “By joining the LoRa Alliance, Mobiliya intends to contribute towards developing robust solutions by leveraging LoRaWAN … Being a member of the LoRa Alliance will also enable Mobiliya to help telecom operators in various geographies leverage new business opportunities by connecting a diverse set of IoT endpoints. Mobiliya will extend its niche end‐to‐end capabilities by integrating LoRaWAN‐based devices in the IoT ecosystem within the cloud and eventually with end user applications,” said Mobilyia.
Today’s forecast: Millimeter wave technology market to grow 43 percent to 2022
The global market for millimeter wave technology is expected to reach a value of $4,632.8 million by 2022, up from $346.8 million in 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.99 percent between 2016 and 2022, according to a new forecast by RnR Market Research. The growing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications as well as the increasing usage of millimeter wave technology in the small cell backhaul network will be driving growth in the market. The telecommunication sector is expected to keep holding the largest market share going forward. While North America accounted for the largest share of the market in 2015 and Europe for the second largest, Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the World (RoW) are expected to experience the fastest growth during the forecast period.
