On April 7, 2022, the "5G Small Base Station Empowerment Vertical Industry Seminar" with the theme of "Open Innovation Integration Empowerment" was held in Beijing, and industry experts from operators, base station manufacturers, open source manufacturers, ICT manufacturers, test manufacturers, and chip manufacturers gathered together to talk about how 5G small base stations can empower thousands of industries?
Li Fuchang, director of the Wireless Technology Research Center of China Unicom Research Institute, said in his speech that the focus of 5G network construction has shifted to the deep coverage scenario of urban areas, and small base stations have the characteristics of "customization and flexibility", which is easy to deeply integrate with vertical industries and can meet the fragmented needs of applications in small and medium-sized industries. China Unicom took the lead in completing the decoupling test of 5G micro-station manufacturers and the 5GC NG interface of the existing network, opening the door for commercialization of small base stations.
Small cell advantages are significant
Accelerate the development of 5G application scale
After nearly 3 years of commercial deployment, in 2022, the 5G construction in mainland China has entered a stage of high-quality development.
In the early stage of 5G network construction, China Unicom and China Telecom built the world's first, largest and fastest 5G SA to jointly build a shared boutique network. At present, the two sides have opened and shared 690,000 base stations, providing an example for global 5G large-scale construction and low-carbon emission reduction. According to Li Fuchang, through network co-construction and sharing, the cumulative investment saved for both sides was 210 billion yuan; the annual operating cost savings were 20 billion yuan, the power savings were 17.5 billion kWh, and the carbon emissions were reduced by 6 million tons, which was equivalent to planting 3.27 million trees. It can be seen that the joint construction of shared base stations is of great significance to "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality".
At the same time, China Unicom is also promoting the accelerated transformation of 5G applications from "model rooms" to "commercial housing", including 25 key industries, more than 300 application scenarios, 800 5G industry virtual private networks, and more than 300 lighthouse projects.
At the just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympics, 5G networks and applications have shined. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China Unicom focused on the three major scenarios of watching, participating in and hosting the games, and 10 major scientific and technological innovations created a number of domestic firsts and world-leading "gold medal" technology applications. Including: 5G stadium super capacity network support technology, the world's first 5G high-definition high-speed rail studio, the first introduction of IPv6+ technology "Winter Olympics smart private network", 360-degree free perspective system, 5G cloud broadcasting, the debut of international events unmanned hybrid interview, 5G + Beidou "intelligent car federation", Winter Olympics Communication Operation Command Center (TTOC) "smart brain", 5G smart epidemic prevention, 5G + smart services, etc.
In Li Fuchang's view, for the future development of 5G, the needs of thousands of industries will show fragmentation and complexity, and it is difficult to meet all differentiated needs with a unified network deployment method. Small base stations have the characteristics of "low cost and flexible construction method", which can be covered for low- and medium-value, small and micro areas, and differentiated coverage; at the same time, small base stations have the characteristics of "customization and flexibility", which are easy to deeply integrate with vertical industries, and can meet the fragmented needs of applications in small and medium-sized industries.
For the 2C scenario, the scenarios for small base stations mainly include: outdoor wide coverage scenarios, outdoor supplementary coverage scenarios, indoor low-middle and low traffic scenarios, indoor small and micro scenarios, elevator ground stops and other scenarios.
For 2B scenarios, small base station products are mainly for small and medium-sized industry users, such as small parks, independent supermarkets, office buildings and other scenarios.
In the 2H scenario, in the face of diversified home user needs, we can use converged solutions to combine 5G networks and a new generation of WiFi 6 networks to form a unified super bandwidth network capability to ensure user experience.
Autonomous controllable and diversified ecology
It is the key to the development of small base stations
"China Unicom has started from the end and continued to promote the maturity and application of the 5G small station industry." Li Fuchang said that as early as 2019, China Unicom took the lead in initiating the establishment of the "China Unicom 5G Digital Room Innovation and Development Alliance" and released the "China Unicom 5G Digital Room Technology White Paper" to jointly promote the development of the indoor digital industry chain. In 2020, it will take the lead in completing 13 extended microstation NG interface compatibility tests and recruitment tests for 5G extended microstation devices in the industry. In September 2021, the normalization test of the extended micro-station was realized, and the development of domestic small base stations was completed, and the localization rate of independent controllable small base stations in the intermediate frequency band reached 99%.
"China Unicom took the lead in completing the decoupling test of 5G microstation vendors and the 5GC NG interface of the live network, which solved the protocol consistency between the 5G microstation and the live network core network, the mobility of 5G micro-station and the live network 4G service, and the voice service continuity between the 5G microstation and the live network, opening the door for commercialization for the industry." Li Fuchang said.
China Unicom's completion of the NG interface decoupling test means that the barriers to entry of main equipment manufacturers have been broken, and the 5G micro-station has reached an important milestone towards commercial deployment, clearing the technical obstacles for live network applications. The next step is to create a unified network management platform to help small base stations manage and control.
Li Fuchang revealed that creating a unified network management platform is conducive to visualizing the entire network when applying on a small base station scale. It is reported that the unified network management platform built by China Unicom can solve the problems of southbound interface consistency, northbound interface fusion, different device compatibility and intelligent management scalability, greatly reducing the difficulty of operation and maintenance management, and cleaning up a major problem in network scale deployment.
In addition, in view of the private network solution, China Unicom continues to carry out research on the common technical solutions of the 5G industry private network, focusing on promoting the research of common technological innovations such as large uplink and high-precision positioning, promoting the deployment of the common technical solutions of the 5G industry private network, and empowering the industry private network service capabilities.
"In order to promote the further maturity of small base stations, in 2021, we launched field commercial experiments to help small base stations mature and apply." Li Fuchang said, "In September last year, China Unicom launched the normalization test of small base stations, marking the official opening of the prelude to the commercial application of small base stations, there are currently more than 20 manufacturers registered, a total of 16 equipment test specifications, the current entire plan is steadily advancing." ”
Through laboratory and field pilot verification, China Unicom will focus on verifying the performance and stability of 5G extensible microstation equipment, verifying the compatibility and versatility of the unified control system (equipment network management), and combining the differences in application scenarios, testing the synergy and stability of 5G microstation equipment and terminals, laying the foundation for the subsequent application of 5G social base station public network and the promotion of vertical industries.
In the context of global science and technology, the independent control of small base stations is the future development direction. Li Fuchang finally emphasized: "China Unicom will conduct in-depth equipment research, release hardware reference designs, reduce the threshold of industry research and development, and promote the localization of core components." It is committed to continuously creating a diversified ecology of small stations, promoting the independent and controllable production of small base stations nationwide, promoting the benign development of the industrial chain, and empowering thousands of industries. ”
End
Author: Mei Yaxin
Editor-in-Charge/Layout: Fan Fan
Review: Shen Qing
Producer: Liu Qicheng
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