Huawei: 5G field trials deliver improved spectral efficiency, throughput

Huawei announced that field trials conducted in April proved the ability of 5G to improve spectrum efficiency and meet a diverse set of service requirements set for the next generation technology by the ITU.

The vendor collaborated with the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT), and operators China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom during the trials of outdoor macro cell equipment. The tests formed part of a broader test programme defined by the IMT-2020 5G Promotion Group, an initiative launched by CAICT to foster joint development of 5G technology

Huawei said the partners explored the use of "innovative" air interface technologies with the aim of delivering the best spectral efficiency and "massive links" capabilities. The vendor explained that a 5G-optimised air interface, full duplex, and massive MIMO technologies are the key enablers in developing next generation networks capable of delivering emerging mobile broadband services.

Wen Tong, Huawei's 5G chief scientist, commented that Huawei and its test partners are the "first to complete 5G key technologies test and corresponding system integration test based on our proposed 5G new air interface."

The Chinese trials "will be a great contribution to 5G applications in the future," Tong added.

The 5G air interface technology developed as part of the trials was implemented using a trio of foundation technologies: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (F-OFDM); Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA); and Polar code.

In a statement, Huawei explained that F-OFDM is the "basis for creating ultra-flexible air interface to adaptively fit all the 5G use-case scenarios defined by ITU-R with a single radio technology platform." The technology delivered a 10 per cent increase in system throughput "using those free guard bands in the LTE system" during the trials, the vendor stated.

F-OFDM is also capable of delivering a 100 per cent improvement in system throughput compared to LTE systems "in the presence of mixed service on the same carrier frequency with mixed radio numerologies," Huawei added.

The SCMA element is designed to "support massive connections and obtain higher system throughput," specifically a 300 per cent increase in uplink throughput and an 80 per cent boost in the downlink.

Polar code "provided coding gain from 0.5 dB to 2.0 dB compared with Turbo code used in LTE system," the vendor explained.

For more:
- see this Huawei announcement

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