Since the commercialization of 5G, China has built the world's largest and most technologically advanced 5G independent networking network, which has significantly improved the user experience in terms of coverage and network speed, and as a new voice solution in the mature stage of 5G network, VoNR is gradually opening up to users across the network with the completion of the network ecology.
CITIC Mobile and operators are actively promoting the deployment of VoNR functions.
Voice call technology continues to evolve, and the advantages of 5G VoNR are highlighted
In the 2G and 3G era, voice communication is generally based on circuit switching, and a line with exclusive resources is established to achieve calls. In the 4G era, through the introduction of IMS, LTE networks can directly provide IP-based voice services, directly carried on the network, without exclusive resources, greatly improving network efficiency, and fast connection speed, clearer sound quality, and achieved a qualitative leap in technology evolution and user experience.
Therefore, in the early stage of 5G SA network deployment, operators are still relying on 4G VoLTE to carry mobile voice services, and in the stage when 5G network coverage is not yet mature, they provide users with seamless voice solutions through the 5G fallback technology (EPS Fallback) that falls back to 4G.
With the improvement of 5G network coverage, VoNR in 5G SA mode will realize a networking mode based on pure 5G access, where calls and data services are carried by 5G, and only 4G is dropped when the 5G signal is insufficient.
Based on the features of ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability, 5G VoNR voice calls have a shorter establishment time and support 5G voice and data concurrency, eliminating the need to occupy traffic resources during the call. Overall, it will feature lower latency, more stable connections, better sound quality, and further simplify the network architecture and reduce O&M costs.
Table: Evolution characteristics of 2G-5G voice technology
Based on the many advantages of VoNR, domestic operators are accelerating the upgrading of old and inefficient voice technologies.
On the one hand, compared with 4G VoLTE HD AV calls, 5G new calls continue faster, have higher bandwidth, and have clearer AV; at the same time, based on 5G VoNR, 5G new calls can share the content of the mobile phone screen and send pictures, videos and files during the call.
5G new calls can also convert the voice IVR button selection into a visual screen touch selection, which can realize multilingual and dialect transcription, mutual translation, simultaneous interpretation, etc. in real time with the call, greatly improving communication efficiency and effectively solving communication barriers caused by foreign languages and dialects.
On the other hand, in the new application field of 5G, VoNR is also embedded as a vertical industry service with independent functions, providing high-definition video effects for applications such as augmented reality, remote control, and the Internet of Things. More and more industries can enhance the interactive communication environment to meet the needs of users and create friendlier customer service scenarios.
In the future, the 2B private network market will become the main business of operators, a large number of voice and video communication services that require high quality, low latency and stable connection, and VoNR technology to provide protection, VoNR has become an inevitable trend in network evolution.
CITIC Mobile assists operators in completing the verification of VoNR function deployment
In 2020, with the construction of the second phase of 5G SA, CITIC Mobile actively promoted the deployment of VoNR functions. In 2021, China Unicom and China Telecom jointly opened the scale verification of 100 cities and accelerated the trial commercial deployment of the whole network.
Since 2022, CITIC Mobile has helped China Unicom and China Telecom to carry out a series of outfield VoNR network pre-commercial verification in Henan, Jiangxi and other places, and conducted a number of tests such as VoNR voice and HD video call service coverage, mobility, and cross-frequency system switching for different scenarios.
It has been verified that the 5G VoNR voice MOS value, voice connection rate, droppe rate, switching success rate and other indicators meet the commercial VoNR voice standards, and have the network capability to support operators to fully upgrade to 5G VoNR new voice.
At present, China Unicom and China Telecom have announced the launch of 5G network voice call services based on co-construction and sharing in many cities, and continue to explore intelligent communication network operations and industry value-added services under co-construction and sharing.
CITIC Mobile will also actively participate in the calibration and performance discussion of wireless parameters for operator voice services, provide multi-scenario and multi-terminal technology experience for domestic VoNR commercialization, and jointly contribute to the sustainable prosperity of the new 5G ecosystem in China.