Huawei and NTT DOCOMO successfully tested 5G technology in the field

The Chinese company Huawei and the Japanese telecommunications giant NTT DOCOMO successfully conducted the world's first large-scale tests of wireless data transmission using 5G technology, using the sub-6GHz band. Experts were able to transfer data at a speed of 3.6 Gbps.

Experts from the International Telecommunication Union have determined the upper limit of the data transfer rate in the 5G network at 20 Gbit / s, but it is rather difficult to achieve such bandwidth, so 3.6 Gbit / s is considered an excellent result. The current test differs from all other experiments in its scale - the fact is that until now the technology has been tested in the laboratory.
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At the same time, in other experiments, specialists used a different spectral range for data transmission, which allows data to be transmitted at a higher speed, but only in open areas. Walls and other obstacles turned out to be almost opaque for such a signal.

For example, tests that were conducted by Samsung, allowed to transfer data at a speed of 7.5 Gbit / s in laboratory conditions. When carrying out similar tests in motion, the speed dropped to 1.2 Gbit / s, and the speed of the station with receiving equipment was only about 100 km / h on a 4.35 km track. These tests were conducted with a spectrum of 28 GHz. Nokia Networks managed to transfer data at a speed of 10 Gbit / s, but again, the tests were carried out in the 73 GHz band.



The obvious problem of working with such frequencies is the need to create a new type of network, with the development of new equipment, which can be quite a costly task. And Huawei was able to transmit data using the frequency in the sub-6GHz band, which is widely used.

Field tests were conducted in an open area in China using data transmission technologies such as Multi-User MIMO, Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) and Filtered OFDM (F-OFDM).

The capacity of the downlink is 1.34 Gbit / s, with a maximum value of 3.6 Gbit / s. At the same time, Huawei also worked with a 5G SU-MIMO prototype, with a peak bandwidth of 10 Gbit / s at a frequency of 200 MHz.

“For the first time in the world, it was possible to successfully conduct such testing, and this is an important event. Frequencies of 5G are planned to be used for commercial purposes by 2020. Huawei and DOCOMO were able to achieve success, and now the next test phase will be held in Japan, ”the vice president of DOCOMO said.

“The combined efforts of our teams made it possible to achieve significant success, which will ensure the implementation of Huawei’s 5G technology standards plan by Huawei until 2018. Results like this show how fast we are moving. I am sure that we will achieve great success if we continue to work with 5G, ”Wen Tong commented on the situation with the Huawei Wireless service station.

Now Huawei plans to launch 5G pilot networks together with its partners, and this should happen in 2018. The global implementation of the 5G standard is scheduled for 2020.