Page 15 - Mobile World Daily - Day 2

HUAWEI | 5G
Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman and Acting CEO, Huawei Technologies
5G - The Road to
a Super-Connected
World
Some people ask whether it's too
early to discuss 5G. In many
countries, 4G deployment has just
begun, with just 8% of global
mobile connections relying on 4G,
and more than 60% still using 2G.
Even so, the time to start discussing 5G is
now. As we move toward the Internet of
Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet,
new technologies are reshaping industries and
society. This transformation, while exciting,
poses huge challenges for mobile
communications technologies. A few
examples:
Connections required by IoT: As impressive
as 4G is, it can only support connections
numbering in the tens of billions. In the era of
IoT, the number of connections will reach
more than 100 billion. Everything we see will
be connected: our toothbrushes, sneakers,
glasses, and watches, as well as the forklifts and with 5G. At such speeds, real-time visual
robotic arms used in factories. The connection
capabilities of 4G are not enough to meet this
future demand.
Latency required by the new industrial
Internet: Applications from self-driving cars
to industrial control systems will require
much lower latency than existing networks
can offer. For example, with 4G networks, a
self-driving car travelling at 100 km/h will
continue moving 1.4 meters from detecting a
failure to applying the brakes. This can be the
difference between life and death. A latency
of 50ms is too high for self-driving cars.
Greater bandwidth. Existing 4G technology
does not support the bandwidth required by
holographic technology and other modes of
communications emerging on the horizon.
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS DAILY 2015 | www.mobileworldcongress.com
WHAT DEFINES 5G
We believe 5G will possess the following
characteristics:
Ability to support a 100-fold increase in
connections. The connections provided by
5G for each cell will number in the millions —
exponentially more than 4G networks. 5G
networks will increase the total number of
global connectable smart nodes to more than
100 billion.
An ultra-low latency of one millisecond.
This will increase the response speed of 5G
networks 50-fold compared to 4G.
A 10 Gbit/s user data rate. The peak data
transfer rate of 5G will be 100 times faster
than what is currently achievable with 4G.
This means the time required to download a
high-definition movie will be reduced from
two or three minutes with 4G to two seconds
communications and holographic multimedia
interaction will become a reality. Remote
education and telemedicine platforms will
also be able to offer a better user experience.
GETTING THERE FROM HERE
Making the transition to 5G will involve
several steps, each with its own challenges.
1. The development of 5G requires more open
cooperation across industries. Developing 5G
requires synergies between application needs,
technical standards, and technological
innovations. Driven by this concept, the telecom
industry should open its doors and proactively
embrace and dialogue with other industries to
jointly define 5G standards.
The current situation still falls short of
expectations. Take the Internet of Vehicles
(IoV) as an example. The widely accepted
standards in the automobile industry are the
US's WAVE and Europe's C-ITS. In the
wireless industry, 3GPP has set LTE-V
standards. But too many standards mean no
clear standard. Stakeholders should
establish dialogues that recognize shared
needs and unify standards. We also hope
governments and industry standards
organizations can play a more constructive
role in this process.
2.5G requires many technological
innovations. Rather than simply upgrade
networks, 5G will totally revamp them.
Ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency,
massive numbers of connections, super-
fast mobility, all-spectrum access – all of technologies can be integrated into existing
these require 5G technology in order to
advance to the next level. A few examples:
New 5G air interface technology will
significantly increase spectral efficiency.
From 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G, spectral
efficiency for air interfaces increased more
than three-fold. New 5G air interfaces should
be designed to maintain this pace of
development. A recent development is an
adaptive and software-defined air interface
framework technology that includes sparse
code multiple access (SCMA), Filtered-
OFDM, and Polar coding. This will
significantly increase spectral efficiency and better stimulate demand for 5G.
allow for more connections and an ultra-low
latency of one millisecond.
Virtualization technology will enable a new which innovation will become the key driver
5G network architecture. 5G networks will
adopt an open and software-driven
architecture that will enable tens of
thousands of 5G application scenarios, such
as the IoV, IoT, and mobile broadband
networks.
All-spectrum access. Spectrum is the scarce
resource for wireless communications. We
expect a five-fold increase in bandwidth as we
go from 4G to 5G. This is a huge challenge as
spectrums below 6 GHz are rather limited for
mobile communications. To achieve all-
spectrum access, we need technological
innovations, combined with more spectrum
allocated by regulatory authorities.
3.Adopt effective technology
commercialization strategies.
On the road to 5G, operators will be able to
apply innovative technologies prior to large-
scale commercial deployment. These
networks to increase performance and
improve user experience. Operators will also
enjoy more benefits, stimulate user demand,
explore new markets, and get ready for the
arrival of 5G.
For example, LTE-M, which allows for 100
times more connections and fully meets the
demands of various scenarios such as meter
readings. We think such commercialization
strategies will support a smooth evolution
from 4G to 5G, which will fully protect our
customers' investments. These efforts will
help to maximize network performance and
Ultimately, the success of 5G will depend
on the success of the entire ecosystem, one in
behind 5G development market demand. Our
ability to imagine the future is still quite
limited, but we know it will be a super-
connected, super-intelligent world. The doors
to technological and business innovation
have just begun to open, and we are at the
beginning of the beginning.
Tuesday 3rd March PAGE 15