Five-minute technology talk | The next milestone in the 5G era: 5.5G

The 5G communication network has the characteristics of high speed, low latency and large connection. It is the network infrastructure for realizing the interconnection between man, machine and things. It also gives 5G technology broad application prospects in industrial scenarios such as eMBB, uRLLC and mMTC.

The rapid development of 5G applications has made new business demands more diversified and complex, and has also put forward higher requirements for 5G network capabilities, but 6G technology has been slow to land. In order to better develop and release the potential of 5G networks, solve the problems encountered in 5G commercial use, and explore the way for 6G innovation, the concept of 5.5G was proposed. 5.5G is the only way for the next upgrade and evolution of 5G networks.

5.5G (also known as 5G-Advanced or 5G-A) is the next milestone in the 5G era. Compared with 5G, it achieves 10 times the speed increase, 10 times the energy efficiency improvement, hundreds of billions of connections and other outstanding capabilities. It has 10 Gigabit speed, deterministic experience, full-scenario IoT, synaesthesia and other capabilities.

China Mobile is the world's largest communications operator and has built the world's largest 5G communications network, making early arrangements for the evolution of 5.5G networks. In 2021, China Mobile and its industry partners released the "5G-Advanced Innovation Chain and Industry Chain Integration Action Plan", proposing three visions of "Excellent Network", "Intelligent Life and Simple Life", and "Low Carbon and High Efficiency" and ten enabling key technologies.

As a pioneer of China Mobile's 5G-A, Zhejiang Mobile completed the verification of the four key technologies of 5G-A technology, namely, ultra-large uplink, broadband real-time interaction, interawareness integration, and passive IoT, in Hangzhou as early as 2022. On March 28 this year, it took the lead in completing the verification of a single-user 10Gbps rate based on 5.5G technology; and on May 15, it worked with Huawei to complete the construction of the world's first 5G-A boutique demonstration route and completed the opening of the entire route, achieving a peak of 10Gbps on the entire route from the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center to the Asian Games Village, and an average network capacity of 5Gbps.

In April this year, Shanghai Mobile took the lead in building a large-scale 5G full-band network in the "Qiantan-Expo Park" area in Pudong, innovatively applied the intelligent carrier solution, completed the large-scale opening of the second carrier in the 2.6GHz frequency band of the 5G network, and superimposed 4.9GHz network capabilities, proactively building a 5.5G network capability base, and opening up new ideas for how operators across the country and even the world can build a 5.5G network capability base in the 5G era.

On May 17, Beijing Mobile, in collaboration with China Mobile Research Institute and Huawei, opened the first 5.5G experimental base station in Beijing at the International Information Port in Changping District, Beijing, and has completed the construction of the 5.5G laboratory's interawareness and passive IoT field.

After nearly two years of joint exploration and efforts by the industry, 5.5G has made key progress. 5.5G has started the process of standardization and continues to enrich the technical connotation of 5.5G, which has moved from vision to consensus. Its key technologies have also made breakthroughs. Ultra-large bandwidth and ultra-large-scale antenna arrays have been verified to have 10G capabilities. In addition, the three types of IoT technologies supported by 5.5G, NB-IoT, RedCap and Passive IoT, have made great strides forward. We are getting closer and closer to 6G.

5.5G means that 5G has entered the second half, providing a solid network communication foundation for the development of new businesses such as the metaverse, mobile cloud terminals, XR/VR terminals, etc., helping the industry and society to improve quality and efficiency, and empowering digital China.