TD-LTE wins award: Guarding 5G and leading the world

January 9th was a day of harvest for those who have worked on TD-LTE for nearly a decade. At the National Science and Technology Awards Conference held on the same day, the "Key Technologies and Applications of the Fourth Generation Mobile Communication System (TD-LTE)" project won the 2016 National Science and Technology Progress Special Award, which marked that my country's mobile communication industry has once again reached the peak of scientific and technological innovation. 50 participants and 14 participating units also made the list of winners. While reaping 4G, my country's mobile communication industry is also looking forward to 5G. At present, the world is studying how to develop from 4G to 5G, and the industry has reached a consensus that the further evolution of TDD core technology represented by TD-LTE will be the key technology in the 5G standard. Facing the goal of 5G commercialization in 2020, my country's mobile communication industry group is continuing to work hard, hoping to lead the world in the development of 5G.

[[181770]]

4G is a historical turning point

Mobile communications are a key national infrastructure and a strategic battleground for global technological innovation and national competitiveness. Over the past 30 years, my country has experienced a development process of "1G blank, 2G follow-up, 3G breakthrough". In 2005, the world entered a wave of competition for 4G standards. Led by China Mobile Communications Group and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Telecommunication Research Institute (now known as China Academy of Information and Communications Technology), in conjunction with the Institute of Telecommunication Science and Technology (Datang Telecom Group), Huawei, ZTE, Spreadtrum, Beijing Telecommunication Technology Development Industry Association (TD Industry Alliance), Yulong, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Tsinghua University, Southeast University, Galaxy Bright Point, Shanghai Chuangyuan, Lenovo Mobile Communications Company and other enterprises, universities, research institutions, and industrial institutions, we have focused on overcoming the five major challenges of technology, industry, networking, testing, and organizational mechanisms, breaking through major core technologies, proposing and leading the TD-LTE international standard, achieving a group breakthrough in the entire industry chain, and widely applying it around the world, achieving a historical turning point in the development of my country's mobile communications industry.

my country has built the world's largest 4G network, opened more than 1.5 million TD-LTE base stations, and the number of users has exceeded 500 million. By November 2016, TD-LTE had deployed 85 commercial networks in 46 countries, achieving global wide application. The commercial use of TD-LTE provides users with high-speed, stable, safe and reliable mobile broadband services. Compared with 3G networks, the average user rate has increased by 10 to 40 times, which has strongly supported the vigorous development of "Internet +". It is the core driving force for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the growth of the information economy, and has become a new engine for economic growth.

In terms of TD-LTE key technologies, we have overcome technical difficulties such as TDD broadband, high-speed mobility and large capacity. In the standard competition, we won out among many TDD technology proposals around the world and became one of the two major mainstream 4G international standards. In terms of industrial capabilities, we have developed TD-LTE highly integrated 28nm "five-mode thirteen-frequency" chips, high-end smartphones, a full range of base stations and test instruments, and achieved global high-end status for the entire industry chain.

In terms of network construction, we proposed solutions such as efficient interference control, network planning based on user experience, systematic coverage and optimization, and built a high-quality 4G network. In terms of innovation model, we created a test theory, method and evaluation system covering technology, system and networking, and developed a test platform covering the entire industry chain; we created a standard promotion platform, an industry collaboration platform and an international promotion platform, and achieved efficient collaboration between government, industry, academia, research and application, forming a new innovation system for large-scale operations.

Cultivate a group of industry backbone forces

Through the development of TD-LTE, a group of backbone forces in my country's mobile communications industry have been cultivated.

As one of the project lead units, China Mobile Communications Group Corporation plays a leading role in the market during the technical standard formulation and industrial research and development stages, driving technological innovation, the formation of leading standards, and joint industrial research; in the large-scale application stage, it plays an innovative role as an operating entity.

In driving technological innovation, we clarified the technology development route and actual application needs, worked with the industry to overcome the original difficulties of TDD, and jointly proposed technical solutions such as multi-stream smart antennas, laying the foundation for TDD technology leadership.

In the formation of dominant standards, we fully leveraged the influence and leading role of operators as market representatives, communicated and coordinated extensively with domestic and foreign companies, and held important positions in international organizations such as 3GPP. Despite the relatively backward progress in FDD, we promoted my country's dominance in the unification of the global TDD evolution path, which successfully became one of the two major mainstream 4G standards in the world.

In joint industrial research, with commercialization demand as the goal, based on national projects and national engineering laboratories, we jointly carried out end-to-end industrial collaborative research, broke through weak links such as chips and instruments, built a TD-LTE demonstration network with the help of the Science and Technology Expo project, accelerated the maturity of the industry, and won the confidence of the international market.

In order to overcome operational difficulties, we have carried out large-scale experiments and formed an operational technology system for the entire life cycle of the network, including planning, construction, networking, and optimization. In just three years, we have successfully built the world's largest, most complex, and world-leading 4G premium network.

In expanding the international market, we will build GTI, the first international industrial cooperation platform led by my country, to promote the global development of TD-LTE.

As the leader of the 4G promotion group and working group, CAICT has taken the lead in 4G strategic research, standardization and industrialization promotion, three-stage test verification, etc., and has contributed a number of innovative results in key technologies and testing methods, and developed a world-leading testing platform. CAICT has made important contributions to the top-level design, system layout and coordinated promotion of the project.

As an important member of my country's information and communication field, Datang Telecom Group has successfully made breakthroughs in broadband TDD system design, as well as key TD-LTE system technology solutions such as TDD/OFDM/MIMO frame structure, intelligent multi-antenna transmission, TDD system synchronization, and large-scale co-frequency networking by relying on its long-term and profound TDD system R&D accumulation and technological innovation. It has conducted a comprehensive and systematic technical evaluation of TD-LTE, and collaborated with various domestic units to actively promote the formulation of TD-LTE international standards, making important contributions to the establishment of TD-LTE core technology solutions and international 4G standards.

In the key links of the mobile communication industry chain such as system equipment, terminal chips, and test instruments, Datang Telecom Group has overcome the industrialization difficulties of TD-LTE smart antennas and large-scale networking applications, 28nm multi-mode and multi-frequency terminal chip research and development, and high-end test instruments. At the same time, it has strategically deployed the integrated circuit manufacturing industry and promoted the interactive development of integrated circuit design, manufacturing and mobile communication industries through the 4G+28nm project.

ZTE is an important promoter of the TD-LTE industry. As of November 2016, ZTE's TD-LTE shipments accounted for one-third of the world's total TD-LTE shipments for three consecutive years. It has obtained 61 TD-LTE commercial contracts worldwide and built TD-LTE networks for 92 operators in 51 countries, becoming an important member of the globalization of the TD-LTE industry.

Spreadtrum is mainly engaged in the key technology research and development and product realization of terminal chips. It has overcome many technical difficulties in 16/28nm advanced process, digital-analog hybrid design and implementation, LTE communication link design, LTE key algorithm design and hardware implementation, high-speed hardware accelerator design, low-power design, multi-mode protocol stack design and implementation, and effectively solved the major problems of high integration, low cost and low power consumption required by TD-LTE commercial multi-mode communication chips. Spreadtrum has also accelerated the rapid development of TD-LTE industry commercialization, and took the lead in launching the 28nm quad-core five-mode chip platform SC9830/9832 and the 16nm 8-core 64-bit chip platform SC9860. In 2016, Spreadtrum's LTE chip sales exceeded 100 million sets.

In response to the testing needs of key links such as chips, terminals, base stations, and networks, Chuangyuan Instruments has made breakthroughs in key 4G communication testing technologies, developed and industrialized a series of high-end communication testing instruments for use in the TD-LTE industry chain, and strongly supported the development of the TD-LTE industry in particular in terms of MIMO channel simulation, wireless air interface signal analysis and network optimization, and terminal and base station manufacturing testing.

The TD Industry Alliance (Beijing Telecommunications Technology Development Industry Association, referred to as "TDIA") has made multiple reports and communications in connecting the government, market, industry, etc., actively sought and won support from the government and industry, carried out unified planning of the industrial chain, promoted industrial development, promoted effective cooperation among enterprises, and actively expanded domestic and foreign markets. The role it has played has been widely recognized by domestic and foreign regulatory agencies and the industry.

Watching 5G and Leading the World

The strengthening of industrial strength has given my country a certain advantage in 5G standards, key technology research, and subsequent network construction and commercial promotion. In January 2016, my country took the lead in launching 5G technology research and development trials, and successfully completed the first phase of 5G technology research and development trials in September. In order to support the formation of a competitive global unified 5G international standard, simultaneously promote the development of 5G concept prototype equipment, and cultivate the 5G industry chain, my country carried out the second phase of 5G research and development technology trials from September 2016 to September 2017. System verification test.

The industry promotion experience gained in 4G is being transplanted into 5G. The IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group has become a promotion platform for 5G technology and standards, and the Huairou field test environment of 4G has continued to become the site for the second phase of 5G field tests. The multiple-input multiple-output smart antenna (MIMO) developed on the basis of TDD technology has developed into large-scale multiple-input multiple-output antennas with 128 arrays and 256 arrays, and has become one of the key technologies of 5G.

On November 18, 2016, at the 3GPP RAN1#87 meeting held in Nevada, the United States, 3GPP finally determined the channel coding technology solution for the 5G eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband) scenario, in which Polar code is used as the coding solution for the control channel and LDPC code is used as the coding solution for the data channel. The adoption of Polar code led by Chinese companies represented by Huawei by 3GPP is an important progress in my country's research and standardization of 5G mobile communication technology. At the 3GPP SA2#118 meeting on the same day, after heated discussions, China Mobile took the lead in 5G system design and served as the rapporteur of the project.

At the beginning of this year, Wu Hequan, chief technical engineer of the major project "New Generation Broadband Wireless Mobile Communication Network" and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, expressed the hope that through hard work, China will become one of the global leaders in 5G by 2020. In terms of specific implementation and organization, it is necessary to decide to take operators as the leader, drive systems with applications, drive equipment with systems, drive terminals with equipment, drive chips with terminals, and at the same time drive the weak links such as software, antennas, and instruments. Wen Ku, director of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the development of 5G needs to be systematically promoted from multiple aspects such as 5G research and development, spectrum planning, international cooperation, and the combination of 5G and business applications. It is hoped that under the organization of the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, domestic and foreign companies will actively participate, use 5G technology research and development experiments as a carrier platform, jointly promote the research and development of 5G technology products and standards, build an industrial chain, form a competitive 5G technology industry, and continuously explore 5G market applications.