Tested in 6 cities! How fast can 5G uplink with Super Uplink run?

Ever since 5G has entered the homes of ordinary people, taking out your phone to test the speed from time to time has become a new normal. Looking at the rapidly rising values, I believe everyone will have a strong sense of gain.

But have you noticed that each speed test is generally divided into two runs: downlink and uplink. The former is the data transmission rate from the base station to the mobile phone, and the latter is the data transmission rate from the mobile phone to the base station. The uplink rate is also much lower than the downlink rate. This is because for a long time, mobile communication technology has mainly focused on satisfying consumers' downlink experience, and the allocation of downlink resources is much higher than that of uplink. However, with the rise of various highly interactive services such as live broadcasting and cloud gaming, the impact of uplink on service experience is rapidly increasing.

As the main means of enhancing uplink performance, super uplink has thus jumped into the public eye and gradually become well-known. The so-called "super uplink" is to superimpose the SUL band on the basis of the TDD band, and to improve the uplink rate and coverage and reduce latency through the coordination of TDD and FDD. To make an inappropriate analogy, it is equivalent to adding a lane next to the original two-way single lane, so that vehicles in the uplink direction do not need to be restricted in time periods and can travel unimpeded throughout the journey.

So, with the support of super uplink, to what extent has the network experience been improved? Which cities have made up for the shortcomings in uplink and become the best among many "5G cities"? As the saying goes, "seeing is believing", C114 cooperated with industry insiders in many places to conduct a series of on-site speed tests and experiences, hoping to find the answer.

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Six-city test: Super Uplink becomes a new urban landmark

The super uplink test locations involved six cities, including Xiamen, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Taiyuan and Hangzhou. The entire process used local operators' commercial networks and Huawei Mate40 Pro mobile phones that support super uplink, and the speed test software was Speedtest.

The Xiamen Marathon will start in April this year. This event, which started in 2003, has an international influence and was certified as the "World Athletics Elite Platinum Race" in February this year. C114 was tested at the intersection of Hubin South Road and Douxi Road, the turning point of the Xiamen Marathon halfway. The uplink rate before the super uplink was turned on was about 300Mbps. After the super uplink was turned on, the peak rate increased to 451Mbps and the average rate reached about 380Mbps. At the same time, in a scenario dominated by high-rise urban areas such as Xiamen, the low-frequency band of super uplink can give full play to the advantages of coverage and propagation, so that the uplink rate of indoor coverage can gain 60%~400%.

Jing'an Nanjing Road Business District is a very famous business district in Shanghai. There are Jing'an Temple, Tonglefang and other scenic spots around it. It also has Nanjing West Road Pedestrian Street and Huaihai Road Commercial Street, including a series of large shopping malls such as Hang Lung Plaza and Jiuguang Department Store, and areas with dense traffic. The uplink rate here is usually around 300Mbps. After turning on the super uplink function, the actual measured rate is as high as 507Mbps.

In the crowded scene of Beijing Financial Street, Super Uplink increased the peak uplink speed from 180Mbps to 450Mbps, which can support more people to conduct video live broadcast, sharing and other services at the same time. The speed test results in other cities were also impressive, increasing from 230Mbps to 470Mbps in Shenzhen, from 120Mbps to 485Mbps in Taiyuan, and from 220Mbps to 380Mbps in Hangzhou.

It can be seen that due to the differences in initial and superimposed bandwidths in various places, the uplink rate has increased by at least 50% and at most twice after the Super Uplink was enabled, and the coverage has also increased significantly, fully proving that its significant improvement in 5G network experience is not an exaggeration. In a sense, Super Uplink is like the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, the Ping An Financial Center in Shenzhen, and the China Zun in Beijing, which are becoming a new landmark in the city.

From toC to toB: Gigabit uplink lays the foundation for 5G prosperity

As of the end of 2020, my country has accumulated more than 200 million 5G connections. The emergence of super uplink, by moving towards the goal of "gigabit uplink", has laid the foundation for providing differentiated 5G experience, enriching 5G personal applications, and accelerating the popularization and application of 5G.

Currently, highly interactive applications such as live streaming and short video live streaming, which are very popular, all rely on higher uplink rates to support multi-terminal live streaming and improve video clarity and the smoothness of mobile live streaming. At the same time, people are increasingly willing to actively share instead of downloading in the past, calling for smoother networks and faster upload speeds, especially at crowded events such as concerts, hot events, and sports events. For example, the crowd watching the Internet celebrity "Ramen Brother" has caused a surge in uplink traffic, posing a huge challenge to the network. In addition, support for large file transfer will further extend the mobile phones in consumers' hands from life attributes to social attributes.

In the industry, the demand for super uplink solutions may be even more urgent than that of individual users. According to preliminary exploration, high-definition video surveillance, remote control, and machine vision are typical application scenarios in the current industry, and they have put forward higher uplink requirements. For example, surveillance requires the network to be able to carry and accommodate more cameras and improve the clarity of the video. Industry insiders have predicted that the improvement of large uplink capabilities will be the first commercial capability of 5G in industry digitalization, which can solve 80% of the application needs in current industry scenarios. The super uplink solution will be the most powerful booster to maximize the spectrum efficiency of operators and promote the digitalization of the 5G industry.

For operators, super uplink not only means higher spectrum utilization and better network experience, but also helps to find business innovation and revenue growth points for toC and toB. On the other hand, by adding the uplink dimension, it can also further support multi-quantity and differentiated packages and improve refined operational capabilities.

In general, uplink has been given more connotations and expectations in the 5G era, and super uplink has indeed played a role in improving uplink capabilities. On this basis, it is expected to create more value for consumers, the industry, and operators. It is worth mentioning that, just like the flight mode of mobile phones that everyone uses when flying, super uplink is also a domestic solution, and it comes from Huawei. Nowadays, more and more mobile phones support uplink functions. In time, I believe it will become a new standard.