Huawei says it’s successfully dealt large scale field testing of multi user MIMO for the first time, and also the first time that Sparse Code Multiple Access and Filtered OFDM have been used and evaluated in a live environment. According to the vendor, 24 user devices in a macro cell environment were concurrently connected on a sub 6GHz frequency by utilizing MU MIMO it claimed peak download speeds of 1.34 Gbps.
By attaining such rapid speeds in field environments signals that advancement is being made, and that realistically achieving download speeds worthy of the 5G tag is possible.
There remains little to no benchmark or standard for what qualifies as 5G yet, even though work is being conducted across the world in multiple standardized bodies to begin clarifying the steps necessitated from the industry.
Taking the trial further onto a 100 MHz ultra wide band channel, it then clocked massive download speeds of 3.6Gbps, currently more than three times faster than Korea Telecom’s Giga LTE service and more than 10 times faster than speeds being attained in places by LTE-A. While it appears though world ‘firsts’ for 5G are happening every other day.
Huawei plans on having calibration and a pilot network with partners in place for 5G by 2018, with 2019 targeted for interoperability testing ahead of live commercial launches in 2020, as dilated upon by Dr. Wen Tong, CTO of Huawei’s Wireless Networks division.
This joint field trial symbolizes a significant advance toward fulfilling Huawei’s commitment to developing 5G technology standards before 2018,” he said. “Results like these show we are making rapid progress and are on the right path.”
Huawei claims, live streamed by video to its booth at the CEATEC Japan 2015 in Chiba. The next phase of the field trial will be taking place in Japan, according to Takehiro Nakamura, who heads up NTT DoCoMo’s 5G Lab.
As the first in the world to win with such a large multi user environment test, this is an important milestone,” he said. “This is very promoting as the industry works to commercialize 5G by 2020. Both Huawei and DoCoMo teams have made enormous efforts.