Wang Tao of Huawei believes major improvements in 5G are needed as quickly as possible and far ahead of 6G fever dreams. He proposes
- UCBC, to focus on the construction of uplink capabilities, which will be important for industrial IoT. The uplink proposed in the 5G standard is not sufficient for many indoor uses.
- RTBC, focusing on the construction of broadband real-time interaction capabilities
- HCS scenarios, focusing on the construction of capabilities that integrate communication and perception. It would coordinate vehicle and road information
ITU 6G is fascinating to engineers and pr people. Sub-millisecond latency seems exciting until you think of the obstacles to wide deployment and unproven use cases.
Far before "6G,' the networks can be improved in major ways. For example, Ericsson & Huawei are testing cell-free Massive MIMO, a form of network or distributed Massive MIMO that the academics see as the next big advance.
I’ve no idea on whether the telcos will support the extensive network upgrades these functions will require. Ted Rappaport and Tom Marzetta at NYU Wireless are making progress using spectrum far above 100 GHz.
Huawei will bring these ideas to 3GPP shortly.
Here's the pr
Huawei's David Wang: Defining 5.5G for a Better, Intelligent World
[Shanghai, China, November 13, 2020] At the 2020 Global Mobile Broadband Forum
(MBBF), David Wang, Huawei's Executive Director, gave his keynote speech:
"Defining 5.5G for a Better, Intelligent World". Wang said that 5.5G will be an
evolution of 5G and that he looked forward to working with industry partners to
define 5.5G. Together, Wang said, they can improve real-time interaction experience
for individual users, enhance cellular IoT capabilities, and explore new scenarios,
including Uplink Centric Broadband Communication (UCBC), Real-Time Broadband
Communication (RTBC), and Harmonized Communication and Sensing (HCS), for a
better, intelligent world.
David Wang speaks at 2020 MBBF
Each generation of mobile communications technology has reigned for about a
decade, before being superseded by a new standard. 5G will be the major mobile
communications technology until 2030 and will likely be in service until 2040. The
development history of 2G, 3G, and 4G over the past 30 years shows that, even
within each generation, continuous evolution is necessary to fully unleash the
Press Release
potential of the technology and advance the development of the industry.
Connecting people is the basic function of 5G. Mobile networks were first created to
keep people connected, anytime and anywhere. Between now and 2030, 5G will
increasingly help people interact with the virtual world in real time and deliver a truly
immersive experience. 5G-empowered VR/AR has made interaction between the
physical and virtual worlds a reality. However, to deliver an XR Pro and holographic
experience, cellular communication will have to provide higher speeds: The average
access speed will need to increase from the 120 Mbit/s that supports today's 4K
video streaming to the 2 Gbit/s necessary for 16K video. In addition, lower
interaction latency will be needed; the current 20 ms will need to be brought down
to 5 ms. To meet all these requirements, 5G needs to keep evolving.
Connecting things is a major extension of 5G. Huawei's vision and mission is to bring
digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent
world. Connectivity and computing will be the building blocks of this intelligent world,
and 5G will be the most critical connectivity technology. Looking ahead to 2030,
cellular networks will carry more than 100 billion connections, and most of them will
be carried by 5G. This is orders of magnitude higher than the 1.3 billion IoT
connections we have today. 5G needs to keep evolving to meet the ever more
diverse and complex needs of IoT across all scenarios.
The experience of connection between people needs to be improved and scenarios
of connection between things need to be further refined. In preparation for the day
when 5G will support 100 billion connections, Huawei has proposed its vision for
5.5G. The company will shape the development and evolution of the 5G industry,
inject more vitality into 5G, and create new value for the development of our
societies and industry upgrades.
"5.5G is our vision for the industry. It is an enhancement and extension of the three
standard 5G scenarios defined by the ITU – eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC," noted Wang.
The introduction of REDCAP means more device types will be available, providing the
diverse range of devices needed by broadband IoT in the mMTC scenario.
Press Release
Optimizations in latency with a certain level of reliability allow for smart
manufacturing like remote motion control in the URLLC scenario. As industry
intelligent upgrades accelerate, a diverse range of IoT use cases will emerge and 5G
use cases will also diversify. For example, some use cases require both massive
connections and super large uplink bandwidth; some need communication and
sensing capabilities. Therefore, 5.5G will cover three more scenarios than 5G: UCBC,
RTBC, and HCS.
"Going beyond the original three application scenarios to six, 5.5G will take us
beyond the Internet of Everything, enabling the intelligent Internet of Everything,"
said Wang.
The new scenarios enabled by 5.5G will create new value for social
development and industry upgrades.
First, UCBC will accelerate the intelligent upgrade of industries. Built on the
foundation of 5G capabilities, UCBC will enable a 10-fold increase in uplink
bandwidth. This is a perfect fit for manufacturers who need to upload videos in
machine vision and massive broadband IoT, accelerating the intelligent upgrade of
industries. UCBC can also greatly improve user experience with mobile phones in
indoor scenarios, with its deeper coverage and larger uplink capacity.
Second, RTBC will deliver an immersive, true-to-life experience. RTBC
supports large bandwidth and low communication latency. The goal is to deliver a
10-fold increase in bandwidth with a given latency and a certain level of reliability. By
achieving these goals, we can give users an immersive experience when they
interact with the virtual world.
Third, HCS enables autonomous driving. HCS is designed to enable connected
cars and connected drones, scenarios in which autonomous driving is the key
requirement. By applying the beam scanning technology of Massive MIMO to the
sensing domain, HCS can offer both communication and sensing functions. In indoor
scenarios, HCS is capable of providing location services.
Press Release
Fourth, sub-100 GHz usage pattern needs to be restructured to maximize
the value of spectrum. To realize the industry's vision, 5.5G needs to use more
sub-100 GHz spectrum for full-band uplink and downlink decoupling and full-band
carrier aggregation on demand.
Fifth, with AI, 5G networks have limitless intelligence. The 5G era will see
more frequency bands, and more types of devices, services, and customers than any
previous generation. 5.5G needs to fully integrate with AI to address all these
complexities.
Wang concluded his speech by saying, "Unified standards and industry collaboration
are the core DNA that shapes the success of the global wireless communications
industry. The development of 5.5G requires collaboration between all parties up and
down the value chain."
On behalf of Huawei, Mr. Wang put forward three proposals.
First, all industry stakeholders should start working on 5.5G within the 3GPP
framework as soon as possible.
Second, the industry should work together to drive a thriving 5.5G industry
ecosystem by making the most of sub-100 GHz spectrum to provide diversified
network capabilities and devices and overhaul cellular IoT.
Third, the industry needs to further integrate 5G into verticals to create more use
cases and accelerate digital and intelligent transformation.
Huawei looks forward to working with industry partners to define 5.5G and build a
better, intelligent world.
Huawei's David Wang: Defining 5.5G for a Better, Intelligent World [Shanghai, China, November 13, 2020] At the 2020 Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF), David Wang, Huawei's Executive Director, gave his keynote speech: "Defining 5.5G for a Better, Intelligent World". Wang said that 5.5G will be an evolution of 5G and that he looked forward to working with industry partners to define 5.5G. Together, Wang said, they can improve real-time interaction experience for individual users, enhance cellular IoT capabilities, and explore new scenarios, including Uplink Centric Broadband Communication (UCBC), Real-Time Broadband Communication (RTBC), and Harmonized Communication and Sensing (HCS), for a better, intelligent world. David Wang speaks at 2020 MBBF Each generation of mobile communications technology has reigned for about a decade, before being superseded by a new standard. 5G will be the major mobile communications technology until 2030 and will likely be in service until 2040. The development history of 2G, 3G, and 4G over the past 30 years shows that, even within each generation, continuous evolution is necessary to fully unleash the Press Release potential of the technology and advance the development of the industry. Connecting people is the basic function of 5G. Mobile networks were first created to keep people connected, anytime and anywhere. Between now and 2030, 5G will increasingly help people interact with the virtual world in real time and deliver a truly immersive experience. 5G-empowered VR/AR has made interaction between the physical and virtual worlds a reality. However, to deliver an XR Pro and holographic experience, cellular communication will have to provide higher speeds: The average access speed will need to increase from the 120 Mbit/s that supports today's 4K video streaming to the 2 Gbit/s necessary for 16K video. In addition, lower interaction latency will be needed; the current 20 ms will need to be brought down to 5 ms. To meet all these requirements, 5G needs to keep evolving. Connecting things is a major extension of 5G. Huawei's vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. Connectivity and computing will be the building blocks of this intelligent world, and 5G will be the most critical connectivity technology. Looking ahead to 2030, cellular networks will carry more than 100 billion connections, and most of them will be carried by 5G. This is orders of magnitude higher than the 1.3 billion IoT connections we have today. 5G needs to keep evolving to meet the ever more diverse and complex needs of IoT across all scenarios. The experience of connection between people needs to be improved and scenarios of connection between things need to be further refined. In preparation for the day when 5G will support 100 billion connections, Huawei has proposed its vision for 5.5G. The company will shape the development and evolution of the 5G industry, inject more vitality into 5G, and create new value for the development of our societies and industry upgrades. "5.5G is our vision for the industry. It is an enhancement and extension of the three standard 5G scenarios defined by the ITU – eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC," noted Wang. The introduction of REDCAP means more device types will be available, providing the diverse range of devices needed by broadband IoT in the mMTC scenario. Press Release Optimizations in latency with a certain level of reliability allow for smart manufacturing like remote motion control in the URLLC scenario. As industry intelligent upgrades accelerate, a diverse range of IoT use cases will emerge and 5G use cases will also diversify. For example, some use cases require both massive connections and super large uplink bandwidth; some need communication and sensing capabilities. Therefore, 5.5G will cover three more scenarios than 5G: UCBC, RTBC, and HCS. "Going beyond the original three application scenarios to six, 5.5G will take us beyond the Internet of Everything, enabling the intelligent Internet of Everything," said Wang. The new scenarios enabled by 5.5G will create new value for social development and industry upgrades. First, UCBC will accelerate the intelligent upgrade of industries. Built on the foundation of 5G capabilities, UCBC will enable a 10-fold increase in uplink bandwidth. This is a perfect fit for manufacturers who need to upload videos in machine vision and massive broadband IoT, accelerating the intelligent upgrade of industries. UCBC can also greatly improve user experience with mobile phones in indoor scenarios, with its deeper coverage and larger uplink capacity. Second, RTBC will deliver an immersive, true-to-life experience. RTBC supports large bandwidth and low communication latency. The goal is to deliver a 10-fold increase in bandwidth with a given latency and a certain level of reliability. By achieving these goals, we can give users an immersive experience when they interact with the virtual world. Third, HCS enables autonomous driving. HCS is designed to enable connected cars and connected drones, scenarios in which autonomous driving is the key requirement. By applying the beam scanning technology of Massive MIMO to the sensing domain, HCS can offer both communication and sensing functions. In indoor scenarios, HCS is capable of providing location services. Press Release Fourth, sub-100 GHz usage pattern needs to be restructured to maximize the value of spectrum. To realize the industry's vision, 5.5G needs to use more sub-100 GHz spectrum for full-band uplink and downlink decoupling and full-band carrier aggregation on demand. Fifth, with AI, 5G networks have limitless intelligence. The 5G era will see more frequency bands, and more types of devices, services, and customers than any previous generation. 5.5G needs to fully integrate with AI to address all these complexities. Wang concluded his speech by saying, "Unified standards and industry collaboration are the core DNA that shapes the success of the global wireless communications industry. The development of 5.5G requires collaboration between all parties up and down the value chain." On behalf of Huawei, Mr. Wang put forward three proposals. First, all industry stakeholders should start working on 5.5G within the 3GPP framework as soon as possible. Second, the industry should work together to drive a thriving 5.5G industry ecosystem by making the most of sub-100 GHz spectrum to provide diversified network capabilities and devices and overhaul cellular IoT. Third, the industry needs to further integrate 5G into verticals to create more use cases and accelerate digital and intelligent transformation. Huawei looks forward to working with industry partners to define 5.5G and build a better, intelligent world.