China Mobile, together with Qualcomm and ZTE, is planning to conduct a large-scale 5G test based on specs being developed by 3GPP.
Over-the-air field and interoperability tests need to be conducted before a new generation of mobile technology can be rolled out. While the 5G standard is being finalized, China mobile is looking to get an early start in this process.
Qualcomm stated in a press release: “The trials will operate in sub-6 GHz mid-band spectrum at 3.5 GHz and intend to drive the mobile ecosystem toward rapid validation and commercialization of 5G NR technologies at scale, enabling timely commercial network launches based on 3GPP Rel-15 standard compliant 5G NR infrastructure and devices.”
With its hardware partners, China Mobile hope to achieve multi-gigabit per second data rates at a significantly lower latency and better reliability compared to today's network technology. With the rise of Internet-of-things devices such as drones, autonomous vehicles, and industry equipment, 5G is among the most important generations yet.
“5G is very important for future development and we have put much resources on 5G research, standardization, and industrialization, and built a 5G joint innovation center to cultivate the cross-industry innovation,” said the general manager at China Mobile Wang Xiaoyun.
While prototypes will be supplied by Qualcomm, ZTE will provide base stations for the simulations of real-world scenarios. Trials will make use of use of technologies such as adaptive self-contained TDD, scalable OFDM-based waveforms and Massive Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output antenna technology.
Besides this, they will also use beamforming techniques, flexible low-latency slot structure-based design as well as an advanced coding and modulation schemes.
All of the technology mentioned will focus on 5G in the sub-6 GHz mid-band spectrum at 3.5 GHz trials, which are expected to launch in China beginning in the second half of 2017.
The trials will help with testing and evolving the first 3GPP 5G NR specification in order to accelerate development and ensure global compatibility with future devices.