Commercial 5.5G: 8 innovation practices unveiled

Barcelona: On the opening day of the much anticipated Mobile World Congress 2024 here, Huawei introduced eight 5.5G innovations to assist operators in developing multi-path 5.5G networks.
Cao Ming, Huawei's Wireless Solution President, announced the start of 5.5G commercialisation, highlighting the Chinese tech giant’s comprehensive 5.5G offerings featuring "Native Giga" and "Native Green" for global operators. This marks the transition of 5.5G from concept to reality, with all necessary standards, services, and policies in place, signalling the acceleration of 5.5G deployment worldwide. Operators in the Middle East have already scaled 5.5G commercial use, while those in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America are testing 10 Gbps speeds for 2024 commercialisation.
The 5.5G evolution involves all bands, utilising both test-driven development (TDD) and feature-driven development (FDD) networking to achieve ubiquitous 5 Gbps and hotspot 10 Gbps speeds. Huawei's 5.5G GigaGreen products and solutions, which are "Native Giga" for performance and "Native Green" for energy efficiency, are already supporting the global rollout of high-performance, energy-efficient 5.5G networks.
Following are the eight innovation practices that Huawei has introduced:
(1) The 64T MetaAAU with Extremely Large Antenna Array (ELAA) supports multi-band operations, achieving 5 Gbps everywhere by combining high and low bands. Implemented in China and the Middle East, it simplifies site construction by verifying multi-carrier TDD with bands like 3.5 GHz, 2.6 GHz, and 4.9 GHz.
(2) The Hepta-band RRU upgrades FDD to support seven bands from 700 MHz to 2.6 GHz, reusing 100 MHz bandwidth for 5 Gbps networks. The solutions enhance FDD efficiency, with the triple-band 8T8R and Massive MIMO significantly improving coverage and capacity in Cambodia and Malaysia.
(3) The mmWave technology, essential for 5.5G's 10 Gbps, features the industry's largest AAU with over 2,000 antenna elements, offering four times the beam density of competitors and overcoming coverage challenges. Successful implementations in China and Finland demonstrate smooth 10 Gbps mobile experiences.
(4) LampSite X supports up to 1.6 GHz bandwidth in sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands for indoor 10 Gbps. In Hong Kong, it enabled a 10 Gbps business area, enhancing AR experiences and boosting network traffic and merchant revenue.
(5) Huawei's "0 Bit 0 Watt" approach for 5.5G equipment, based on "Native Green" design, improves energy efficiency tenfold. Verified in Zhejiang, China, it significantly reduces power consumption in both idle and active modes, achieving all-day energy savings.
(6) MAGICSwave enables Microwave 2T in all scenarios, reaching up to 50 Gbps to support 5.5G evolution.
(7) Signal direct injection feeding (SDIF) is applied to all antennas, enhancing energy efficiency by 20% across bands.
(8) Huawei IntelligentRAN utilises large communication models and digital twin systems for L4 network intelligence, optimising costs and efficiency.
Cao Ming underlined the obtaining performance and energy efficiency.
"As we keep walking the walk, we can reach our goals. Huawei's GigaGreen full-series solutions provide the most powerful performance with minimal resource consumption, aiding operators in maintaining their success during the 5.5G era with networks known for their unparalleled performance and energy efficiency," he concluded.