Jiwei Network report (text/Zhang Yiqun) Recently, the formulation of 3GPP 5G Release 17 (Rel-17) standards was successfully completed, and the first phase of 5G evolution was completed.
As an innovation leader in the mobile communication industry, Qualcomm has played an important role in the process of 5G standard formulation and evolution, contributing a number of key technological inventions, and further promoting the deep popularization of 5G in the world.
At the recent Qualcomm "5G Technology Evolution" media sharing meeting, Dr. Xu Han, head of R&D of Qualcomm In China, shared the latest technological progress of the 3GPP Rel-17 version and Qualcomm's innovative achievements in a series of projects.
R17 freezes the first phase of the 5G evolution to reach milestones
Today, 5G is growing very fast around the world. From the perspective of commercial deployment, more than 205 operators have deployed 5G commercial networks, and more than 280 operators are investing in the deployment of 5G technology; it is expected that the number of global 5G connections will exceed 1 billion in 2023, which is two years faster than the speed of 4G to obtain the same number of connections; it is expected that from 2020 to 2025, 5G mobile phone shipments will exceed 5 billion; more than 1275 5G terminals have been released or are being designed.
In 2018, 3GPP completed the first version of the 5G standard, Rel-15; followed by 5G pre-commercialization, from 5G official commercialization to the current large-scale commercialization has been nearly three years, and many 5G applications have appeared in various industries, especially 5G mobile phones have become more and more popular. At present, 3GPP has completed the third version of the 5G standard Rel-17 at the standard level.
Xu Said that the first version of the 5G standard, Rel-15, is most focused on the enhancement of mobile broadband (eMBB). The first 5G version laid a very good foundation, it provided the overall architecture for the subsequent 5G development, and was the cornerstone of the future evolution of 5G.
In terms of spectrum, the Rel-15 introduces support for Sub-7GHz and millimeter wave. Prior to this, much of the industry was talking about Sub-6GHz, with Rel-15 extending spectrum to sub-7GHz and millimeter wave bands; in terms of 5G architecture, Rel-15 supported scalability and forward compatibility.
In addition, Rel-15 introduces support for the underlying ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). URLLC technology continues to evolve in Rel-16/17/18. eMTC/NB-IoT technology support mMTC, etc. was introduced.
According to Xu Han, the second version of the 5G standard, Rel-16, has promoted the expansion of 5G to the industry. One of the extensions of Rel-16 is the introduction of support for the licensed spectrum (NR-U), which means that in addition to the licensed spectrum allocated by the state to operators, 5G applications can also be supported in the licensed spectrum, making 5G applications more flexible. Rel-16 also introduced NR V2X for the first time, which was previously LTE-based cellular vehicle networking (C-V2X) technology, rel-16 introduced 5G NR-based direct communication for C-V2X, etc., which are new technologies in Rel-16 to promote 5G expansion into vertical industries.
In addition, Rel-16 supports 5G broadcasting and integrated access and backhaul (IAB), which continue to expand in subsequent Rel-17 releases to receive better and more complete support.
"Overall, Rel-15 provides a good framework for 5G technology evolution, introducing support for Sub-7GHz and millimeter wave; Rel-16 introduces support for license-free spectrum and adds new features such as direct-connect communication and positioning." Xu Han said.
According to Xu Han, Rel-17 is a continuous promotion for the first two 5G standard versions. One of the scaling features supported by rel-17 is the expansion of the millimeter wave band to 71GHz, the millimeter wave band defined in Rel-15 can actually only go to 52.6GHz, and Rel17 extends the millimeter wave band from 52.6GHz to 71GHz.
The second most important extension feature in Rel-17 is the introduction of "NR-Light" (i.e. RedCap) for lower complexity IoT endpoints. High-performance terminals such as 5G smartphones require large bandwidth and multi-antenna technology support; but low-complexity terminals such as watches do not require so much support for functions, and the NR-Light introduced by Rel-17 can popularize 5G NR to lower complexity IoT terminals, while helping to reduce the energy consumption and price of such terminals.
The third, more important new feature introduced by Rel-17 is non-terrestrial communication (NTN), which is satellite communication. Rel-17 also supports enhanced IIoT, positioning, and V2X: Rel-17 continues to expand the IIoT technology from previous versions of the 5G standard; further refines positioning technology to improve positioning accuracy while shortening latency; in V2X, Rel-16 introduces direct-connect communication for the first time, but only vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and Rel-17 further expands direct-connection communication capabilities to support communication between two terminals of any type. In addition, the Rel-17 introduces enhanced integrated access and backhaul (IAB) and RF repeaters.
Xu Han said that from the stage of technology evolution, the three versions of Rel-15/16/17 are generally called the first stage of 5G evolution; the three versions of Rel-18/19/20 are called the second round of 5G innovation, or 5G Advanced.
R17 Qualcomm contributed key technology inventions
Xu Han said that 5G is developed on the basis of the accumulation of 4G technology. Qualcomm has more than three decades of investment and technology accumulation in the mobile communications industry, from 2G, 3G, 4G to 5G. Based on the accumulation of 4G technology, Qualcomm has long begun to research on related technologies that lay the foundation for 5G, and continues to expand innovative technologies.
According to Xu Han, in the Rel-15, Qualcomm's innovation contributed several key technological inventions: first, the introduction of mobile millimeter wave, which achieves higher gain through large-scale antenna technology compared to 4G; second, the introduction of advanced channel coding, including LDPC and CRC-assisted polarization codes; and third, the introduction of a scalable parameter set. The introduction of these technologies has laid the most basic technical framework for 5G. In the subsequent Rel-16, Qualcomm also contributed to the technology of license-free spectrum, advanced power saving and mobility, high-precision positioning, direct-connected communications, business-critical design, and new deployment models.
In Rel-17, Qualcomm contributed five key technological inventions:
One is millimeter wave expansion. As the number of communication connections increases and the demand for traffic increases, expansion into the millimeter wave band is a very important trend in spectrum expansion. In the case of low-frequency resources, expansion to higher frequency bands is a necessary trend. The Rel-17 expands the spectrum from 52.6GHz to 71GHz, while the Rel-17 also supports the 60GHz license-free band.
The second is the introduction of RedCap (NR-Light) terminals, mainly for wearable devices, sensors and cameras and other low-complexity Internet of Things terminals, such as the camera's connection function is mainly to support uploading videos, do not need to support diverse applications like mobile phones and many complex functions including user interaction; such as sensors, may only need to transmit data to the network, do not need to support too much data download; for example, watches, do not need to place too many antennas, Instead, it is more necessary to enhance battery life and other aspects.
The third is terminal enhancement, which includes support for a series of enhancement features. The Rel-17 enables 5G to support a range of 5G terminals from the highest complexity to the lowest complexity.
The fourth is the introduction of support for non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), which mainly refer to satellite communications. At present, we mainly rely on the cellular network coverage on the ground to achieve mobile communication, but if it is in a very remote area, or in the sea surface and other areas where the cellular network is difficult to cover, satellite communication is a good way to cover. Rel-17 introduced a range of techniques for NTN.
The fifth is to introduce support for topology expansion, including enhanced integrated access and backhaul (IAB), repeaters, and V2X for vulnerable traffic participants.
Xu Han said that Rel-17 is a key milestone in the evolution of 5G, and its completion means the end of the first phase of 5G evolution. The Rel-17 supports enhanced new 5G system features, including further enhanced MIMO, coverage enhancements, terminal power savings, spectrum expansion, enhanced integrated access and backhaul (IAB) and RF repeaters, as well as further enhanced URLLC, enterprise private networks, and other use cases. Rel-17 also extends 5G to new 5G terminals and applications, including a direct-connect communications extension that enables connectivity between two terminals of any type, plus support for broadcast/multicast expansion, lightweight 5G NR-Light, non-terrestrial networks, enhanced precision positioning, and unbounded XR research.
5G killer applications still need time to hatch
Although the global 5G commercialization has been some years, from the perspective of the industry, there is no killer application at present, and 5G innovation does not seem to meet expectations.
In this regard, Xu Han said that when each generation of mobile communication technology is commercialized, killer applications need a certain amount of time to brew, such as when 3G was done, digital communication has been out for a period of time, and the launch of smart phones has brought real killer applications. From the technical side, 5G has achieved higher speeds, lower latency and higher reliability, and killer applications do take a certain amount of time to incubate.
In addition, based on the technological advantages of 5G, we have also seen many potential applications. For example, XR applications, including VR and AR, will develop better under the impetus of 5G. In addition, watching 4K or 8K live video on the mobile phone is also a good application, with the support of 5G transmission, we can watch 4K or 8K video of the live media news and the live broadcast of the Winter Olympics.
In addition, Xu Han said that 5G millimeter wave applications are also worth looking forward to, millimeter waves can provide greater bandwidth and higher rates, with the support of millimeter waves, application scenarios will have more possibilities.
For example, Xu Han said that a better application is 5G medical applications. Qualcomm and partners have done the "5G + smart first aid" project, using the 5G emergency private network to support the connection of ambulances, data centers and hospitals, so that on the way to the hospital by ambulance, the patient's vital signs, on-board OBD and on-site audio and video data can be directly transmitted back to the data center of the Health Commission, so as to match the most suitable treatment hospital in time, and the hospital can also formulate a rescue plan in advance through real-time information obtained.
"We are very much looking forward to more applications of 5G in verticals and other fields, and this landing time will be relatively long, because each industry has its own operating cycle, and it takes some time to change the products in this industry." For example, 5G can provide highly reliable, low-latency connectivity, but to really change the application of robots in the industry, it still needs a certain amount of time to combine 5G with industry applications. We have now seen some applications that take advantage of 5G's high speed and low latency, and we look forward to more 5G applications. Xu Han said.
(Proofreading/Andrew)