Unleashing the potential of 5G: 5G millimeter wave enters the commercial sprint stage

2021 is the year when 5G will be popularized at an accelerated pace. While 5G basic network coverage is being rapidly deployed, 5G technology is also advancing rapidly, especially the faster 5G millimeter wave technology, which will drive 5G to unleash its potential in high-performance application scenarios such as high-definition video, AR/VR, industrial Internet, and Internet of Vehicles.

The industry predicts that my country will be able to issue 5G millimeter wave licenses in 2022. It can be foreseen that in the next few years, 5G millimeter wave will be an important direction for the development and improvement of 5G networks and 5G applications.

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5G millimeter wave application scenarios are accelerating

At the 2021 MWC World Mobile Congress held in Shanghai, 5G millimeter wave has become one of the hot spots that attracted much attention.

At the conference, the 5G millimeter wave exhibition area, hosted by China Unicom and GSMA and supported by Qualcomm Technologies, made a splendid appearance, fully demonstrating to the audience how 5G millimeter wave enables the ultimate performance and rich applications in various industries.

It is understood that in the 2022 Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics, millimeter wave technology has been clearly deployed to enhance the viewing experience and realize multi-angle live broadcast of the stadium.

According to the staff of China Unicom at the scene, although the coverage area of ​​5G network signals in the millimeter wave frequency band is relatively small, its bandwidth is larger, which can achieve higher transmission speed and lower latency network, and can meet the needs of high-definition live broadcast of events. On the other hand, the capacity of 5G millimeter wave is higher, which can not only meet the Internet needs of more people, but also more easily solve the network congestion problem when many users use the network at high frequency at the same time, so it is more suitable for application in densely populated indoor scenes such as stadiums.

In the 5G multi-perspective live broadcast of the stadium, through China Unicom's millimeter wave 5G multi-perspective live broadcast solution, media reporters can directly shoot scenes outside the Zhangjiakou International Cross-Country Skiing Center, connect drones, head-mounted cameras, and professional cameras to base station communications through wireless networks, and achieve multi-angle live broadcast of the stadium, providing spectators with a diverse viewing experience.

It can be seen that the application of 5G millimeter wave will fully unleash the potential of 5G. Compared with 4G, the important improvement of 5G is that it can use more spectrum resources to meet the needs of different types of services. The biggest feature of millimeter wave technology is large network bandwidth and fast network speed. The millimeter wave frequency band has a large amount of continuous and available spectrum resources.

According to on-site speed tests at the Qualcomm exhibition area, with 4*200M bandwidth carrier aggregation, the network speed has reached 4.4Gbps, which is far faster than the currently commonly used 5G network.

At present, the domestic 5G is mainly in the Sub-6GHz 6GHz frequency band. With the increase in 5G penetration and the rapid expansion of 5G applications, the demand for 5G has begun to expand to deeper and more segmented fields.

The commercial application of 5G networks has also gradually shifted from focusing on low frequency to a model that emphasizes both low frequency and millimeter wave, thereby achieving the best user experience of 5G. Therefore, 5G millimeter wave will inevitably become a new evolutionary direction for 5G development.

5G millimeter wave industry chain has matured

The 5G millimeter wave industry chain has basically matured. Mainstream mobile communication equipment providers such as Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, CITIC Technology, and Nokia Bell have launched base station equipment that supports 5G millimeter waves, and chip and terminal equipment manufacturers have also released a large number of products that support 5G millimeter waves.

In the 5G millimeter wave exhibition area, many manufacturers displayed a wide range of products including 5G millimeter wave terminal coverage modules, mobile phones, CPE, PC, AR (augmented reality) and XR (extended reality) devices, live broadcast backpacks, robots, etc. Among them, OPPO's 5G millimeter wave CPE demonstrated the charm of high-speed wireless networks; vivo brought a live dynamic display of 5G+8K ultra-high-definition video, fully demonstrating its own 5G millimeter wave research and development technology strength.

In terms of chips, Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Samsung, and MediaTek have all deployed millimeter wave chips.

In addition, according to Qualcomm China Chairman Meng Pu at this year's MWC conference, more than 130 operators around the world are actively investing in and applying millimeter wave technology.

GSMA mentioned in the "5G Millimeter Wave Technology White Paper" that the current 5G millimeter wave industry development ecosystem at home and abroad is relatively complete and has the conditions for deployment and commercialization. At present, mainstream mobile communication equipment providers have launched base station equipment that supports 5G millimeter waves, and some of them have begun selling second-generation or third-generation products. Chip manufacturers and terminal equipment manufacturers have also released some 5G millimeter wave products.

In fact, China's 5G millimeter wave commercialization has long been on the agenda. As early as the end of August 2020, China Unicom had already announced the development timetable for 5G millimeter wave. According to the plan, the test and solution evaluation will be completed in March this year, and the millimeter wave end-to-end network collaborative interoperability test will be completed. The deployment of relevant sports venues and equipment will be completed in June, and the millimeter wave application product experience deployment will be completed. The general view of the industry chain is that China will realize the commercialization of 5G millimeter wave in 2022.

Although 5G millimeter wave is still in the trial testing stage in China, it has already been commercialized in other countries and regions around the world. It is reported that the United States, Japan, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions have deployed 5G millimeter wave networks and services, and European countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, as well as South Korea and Australia will carry out millimeter wave commercial deployment this year.

GSMA predicts that 5G millimeter wave, as one of the core enabling technologies for high-speed access, industrial automation, healthcare, intelligent transportation, virtual reality, etc., will contribute US$565 billion to global GDP by 2035, accounting for a quarter of 5G's total contribution; by 2034, the economic benefits brought by the use of 5G millimeter wave frequency bands in China will reach approximately US$104 billion.

In 2021, with the joint efforts of the industrial chain, the commercial use of 5G millimeter wave will be accelerated, which will in turn promote the development of 5G technology towards higher speeds, lower latency, and wider applications, allowing more consumers to experience the new experience brought by 5G. The development of 5G millimeter wave is worth looking forward to.