Huawei Discusses the State of 5.5G at MWC ‘24

At Mobile World Congress 2024, Light Reading had the chance to learn about the rise of 5.5G and the opportunities it provides to service providers in an interview with Huawei.

5.5G takes 5G use cases like Fixed Wireless Access and high-definition videos, to the next level. It also introduces new opportunities like passive IoT, a type of IoT that involves sensors that do not require an external energy source.  

To support the buildout of 5.5G, Huawei has been innovating to meet network requirements through five basic capabilities, such as ultra-broadband, multi-band, multi-antenna, intelligence and green.  Huawei’s Ritchie Peng, President of Huawei's Wireless 5G&LTE TDD Product Line, discussed each in detail.

“We rolled out the multi-band, 64 T MetAAU. These multi-band technologies will enable the peak rate of 5.5 G to reach up to 10 Gbps,” said Peng.  He explained that with the ELAA upgrade, the 64T can work with dual-band converged elements to enable the co-coverage between high bands and low bands.

According to Peng, as high bands are increasingly used, an extremely large antenna array (ELAA) will be necessary to address the resulting coverage contraction, according to Peng. ELAA enables high-band networks to provide the same coverage as C-band so that operators can provide 10 Gbps to all users no matter where they are.

Network intelligence is another key consideration in 5.5G, enabling operators to better manage capacity-hungry applications.  For that reason, Peng proposes operators adopt 5.5G solutions that intelligently manage the network.

“At this year's MWC, we announced IntelligentRAN , which can achieve level four network autonomy. And this is the intent oriented network operation that will allow us to conduct the prediction and better manage the network operations and management. “

The last consideration encourages the adoption of green solutions, like Huawei's GigaGreen solution, which can dynamically adapt to demands on the network.

“So, at the site level, we can coordinate the power supply and our equipment to make the entire site 0 bits, 0 watts. Then at the network level, we can adopt differentiated policies for different sites in different time.”

The rapid development of 5G has changed the way we live and work. Huawei will work with the industry to accelerate innovation and realize the potential of 5G in terms of ubiquitous 10G and 100 billion connections. In the future, Huawei believes that the following five aspects will become the application trend:

Connecting People: The new deterministic experience capability brought by 5.5G will accelerate the upgrade of the mobile Internet from 2D to 3D, bring a multifold increase in DOU, and release massive traffic requirements. We have worked with operators to complete innovative application practices such as naked-eye 3D and XR separation rendering.

 IoV: Vehicle-road collaboration can improve traffic efficiency, reduce traffic accidents, and improve management capabilities. This is a consensus. In the future, with the deployment of 5G-A, the Internet of Vehicles can cover more scenarios and promote the industry to move towards highly reliable smart transportation.

Internet of Things: With the reduction of RedCap module costs in 2013, the video networking has entered the large-scale commercial use period in China. 10,000 fully connected factories have been deployed, and more than 100 types of applications have been put into commercial use, covering more than 80% of industry scenarios, saving a lot of financial expenditure for local governments.

Passive IoT: Passive IoT will connect production, warehousing, and logistics, enabling full-process transparency and visualization of fully connected factories, and leading to hundreds of billions of IoTs in all scenarios and diversified IoT types.

Industrial Internet: 5.5G accelerates the application of industrial Internet and accelerates 5G into the core production process of toB enterprises. China Media Group, Beijing China Unicom, and Huawei jointly launched the world's first real-time UHD production system. The complex cable layout in the studio environment is simplified, making the "lightweight deployment, flexible mobility" 5G wireless studio a reality.

Connected home: Home services are rapidly expanding from simple large-screen video experience to smart home, home office, cloud gaming, and naked-eye 3D deep immersion. Leading operators are building 10Gps 5.5G FWA to provide the ultimate home broadband experience. Smart home with diversified services.

Together, those considerations aim to streamline the move to 5.5G, which Peng said is necessary for operators to meet future business demands.