5G development is timely and network construction should be moderately advanced

At present, the overall development of 5G in the world is still in the early stage of exploration. In the more than one year since the commercial use of 5G in my country, good results have been achieved in terms of network construction scale, number of terminal products on the market, user development and application cultivation. Relevant experts said that it is the right time for my country to vigorously promote the development of 5G. Network construction should adhere to the principle of moderate advancement. Specific applications need to be oriented to both individuals (2C) and industries (2B).

[[395148]]

5G innovation meets the needs of national and industrial development

Wang Zhiqin, deputy director of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, and Wei Liurong, deputy chief engineer of the Policy and Economic Research Institute of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that mobile communication technology is updated every ten years. The current period is the transition period from 4G to 5G for global mobile communication networks. my country is at the forefront of the world in deploying 5G networks and promoting the innovative development of 5G applications. This decision is made to meet the needs of national and industrial development.

First, using 5G to expand the space for economic development is a strategic development need of the country. 5G is one of the core key technologies in the new round of scientific and industrial revolution. It will be integrated with the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies. It is not only likely to form a series of new business forms and become a new driving force for economic growth, but also to empower various fields of the economy and society, bringing revolutionary changes in the economic and even social forms. According to the forecast of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, by 2025, 5G can drive telecom operators' network investment of about 1.2 trillion yuan, and the cumulative scale of information consumption brought about will exceed 8.3 trillion yuan, directly driving the total economic output of about 10.1 trillion yuan.

At present, my country is one of the important leaders of 5G technology standards and has advantages in equipment, networks and applications. Exploring the development of 5G applications will help transform my country's leading technological innovation advantages into market innovation advantages, and in the process accumulate experience in using technological innovation to build new industries and new ecosystems. This experience is invaluable for my country's future long-term development.

Secondly, the growth of mobile user traffic has driven network expansion, and the evolution of mobile networks to 5G is a natural trend. In recent years, with the decline in mobile traffic charges and the enrichment of mobile Internet applications, mobile user traffic has continued to grow. The continuous increase in mobile user data traffic has made it difficult for my country's original network to support the business needs of many users, and there is an urgent need for a network that can carry a larger capacity.

Under this trend, the existing mobile network urgently needs to be upgraded and expanded. my country's 5G uses medium and low frequency bands for networking, and 5G and 4G base stations are basically co-located, that is, the number of 5G base stations is basically the same as the number of 4G base stations. The capacity of a single 5G base station is more than 10 times that of a 4G base station, and the price is about twice that of a 4G base station, which means that the cost-effectiveness of 5G base station construction is more than 5 times that of 4G.

Finally, the acceleration of the digital transformation of the economy and society requires the support of 5G infrastructure. In the past year, 5G industry applications have been explored in many fields, and have gradually been recognized in factories, mines, ports, medical care, power grids, transportation, security, education, cultural tourism and smart cities, and have initially formed application scenarios that are expected to be commercialized on a large scale.

Network construction should adhere to the principle of moderate advancement

Wang Zhiqin and Zhang Congwu, senior engineer of the Wireless Application and Industry Research Department of the Radio Research Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, believe that network construction is the cornerstone of 5G commercialization and business development, and the investment is huge. In the construction of 5G networks, "it is better to wait for the road to wait for the car than for the car to wait for the road". We should adhere to the principle of moderate advancement and build wide-area coverage networks for individuals (2C) and industries (2B) at the same time, providing a solid foundation for the prosperity of application innovation.

First, from the perspective of the network construction rhythm, 5G network construction should adhere to the principle of moderate advancement and provide high-quality information infrastructure support for the prosperity of application innovation. At present, in order to maintain the leading edge of the network, it is necessary to continue to maintain a moderately advanced 5G network construction rhythm, expand network coverage, improve network supply capabilities, and lead and create new demand with high-quality supply. In the one and a half years of 5G commercial use in my country, more than 718,000 5G base stations have been built, achieving full coverage of all cities at the prefecture level and above in the country. In 2021, my country has proposed the goal of building another 600,000 5G base stations to achieve deep coverage of 5G networks in cities at the prefecture level and above, which is more scientific and prudent.

Secondly, from the perspective of coverage, wide-area coverage is extremely important for the sustainable development of 5G and the improvement of user perception. In the construction of mobile communication networks, general breadth coverage is first carried out, and then deep coverage optimization is carried out to continuously improve the level of network coverage, and 5G is no exception. 5G personal user services require a network with wide-area coverage, and supporting the digital applications of thousands of industries also requires a 5G network with wide coverage and good quality. Many 2B applications carried out in a wider area, such as smart city management, ecological environment monitoring, 5G ambulances, etc., require the support of a wide-coverage 5G network. In the industrial field, a wide-area 5G network is also needed to meet the needs of the industrial Internet characterized by intelligent production, networked collaboration, personalized customization, service extension and digital management.

Thirdly, from the perspective of network deployment strategy, adhering to precise and intensive network construction and continuously reducing network construction costs are the strong guarantees for the steady and long-term development of 5G. The initial investment in 5G network construction is large, but the co-construction and sharing of cross-industry infrastructure resources such as communications, transportation, and municipal administration, as well as the policy measures such as the ongoing 5G cross-network roaming pilot in remote areas, will promote the continuous reduction of 5G network construction costs. For example, in the past year or so, China Telecom and China Unicom have jointly built and shared 360,000 5G base stations, saving more than 70 billion yuan in construction costs. China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation are also cooperating in 5G construction to jointly build and share 700MHz5G networks. At the same time, it should be recognized that due to the large bandwidth configuration of 5G base stations, the application of large-scale antennas and stronger computing power, the power consumption of 5G base stations is higher than that of 4G, which will correspondingly increase maintenance costs to a certain extent, and network operation and management is not yet intelligent enough. In the next step, it is necessary to promote industry enterprises to accelerate the engineering research of key technologies for low power consumption of 5G equipment and reduce the energy consumption of single equipment. In addition, we must make full use of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and automated network operations to uniformly monitor 5G equipment, conduct intelligent energy management and optimization, and improve energy utilization through refined management.

Focusing on both personal and industry applications

Wang Zhiqin and Wei Kejun, chief engineer of the International Standards Research Department of the Mobile Communications Innovation Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that 5G has now entered the commercial stage, and the world has adopted the first version of the 5G international standard developed by the international standards organization 3GPP. This 5G standard can basically meet 2C services and some 2B applications.

The evolution direction of 5G subsequent international standards is, first, to meet the application needs of segmented IoT, and provide more accurate technical solutions for different scenarios and applications in specific IoT fields such as industrial Internet, 5G vehicle networking, and medical care; second, to support more medium and higher frequency bands, support potential medium frequency bands such as 6GHz, and explore support for higher working frequency bands, with the target frequency band expected to reach 100GHz; third, the deep integration of 5G and artificial intelligence, using artificial intelligence technology to improve 5G network efficiency, and support 5G networks to carry artificial intelligence applications more efficiently. The continuous evolution of 5G technical standards will further unleash the potential of 5G, empower all walks of life, and inject new momentum into my country's new 5G infrastructure.

Wang Zhiqin and Li Shan, director of the Wireless Application and Industry Research Department of the Radio Research Center of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, believe that 5G needs to focus on both 2C and 2B applications, and the innovation model needs to be transformed from "imitative innovation" to "leading innovation."

2C is the foundation and extension of 2B applications. In a sense, 5G personal applications are the basic applications of 5G. Innovations in the field of personal applications can further accelerate the digital transformation of the industry and empower various industries. The most basic function of mobile communications is to serve people, so 2C is the "basic plate" for the development of 5G applications, and 2B is the "new space" for the development of 5G applications. 5G's high speed, large connection, and low latency characteristics enable 5G to support a wider range of applications. On the basis of meeting personal needs, mobile communications began to explore application space for industry needs starting with 5G.

In the future, my country's 5G-based 2C and 2B applications need to advance hand in hand and develop in a coordinated manner, constantly explore 5G application scenarios, and use digital transformation to drive overall changes in production methods, lifestyles, and governance methods.