KT has completed what it claims to be the world’s first 5G low-latency multi-radio access technology test in a 5G commercial network, in collaboration with Belgian tech company Tessares.
The 5G multi-radio access technology, which 3GPP has named ATSSS (Access Traffic Steering, Switch and Splitting), is one of the 5G differentiators that is standardized in the 3GPP Release-16 5G System Architecture Standard (3GPP TS 23.501), Tessares said.
ATSSS was defined in collaboration with KT, Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Cisco and is based on Multi-Path TCP technology. KT is leading the development of multi-radio access technology, and applied it to commercialize what it claimed to be the world’s first ‘GiGA LTE’ and ‘GiGA 5G’ services in 2015 and 2019, respectively, Tessares said.
Tessares also highlighted that ATSSS technology reduces the initial session setup time to achieve 5G ultra-low latency in a multi-radio context, resulting in a setup delay of less than half compared to previous approaches. KT and Tessares have led the international standardization of the initial delay reduction technique through the IETF TCP Working Group, the two companies said, and at the IETF 105th meeting in Montreal, Canada in July, the results of this testing in KT’s 5G commercial network were announced. Other working group members gave positive responses in regard to the effectiveness of the technique, the Belgian firm said.
Low-latency network technology is applied to KT’s enterprise dedicated 5G service, which is expected to contribute to the activation of delay-sensitive enterprise applications such as smart office and smart factory.
“The success of this low latency multi-radio access technology test will allow customers to take advantage of existing LTE and Wi-Fi networks, as well as 5G, to enable wireless services at higher speed and quality,” said Sun-woo Lee, senior VP, KT Infra R&D Laboratory. “KT will continue to develop core 5G technologies to strengthen its R&D capabilities”.
“We are convinced that mobile Internet usage requires an efficient combination of all existing network assets such as WiFi, LTE and 5G. We are delighted to have collaborated with KT, who is clearly leading the 5G race, to demonstrate the benefits of ATSSS.” said Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO.
Tessares is a Belgian tech company providing software-based, hybrid Internet access bonding to telecom operators. Tessares is a spin-off from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium, with backing from investors including mobile operator Proximus.
KT launched commercial 5G services in Korea at the beginning of April 2019. The carrier initially launched the service with a total of 37,500 base stations. KT also previously said that its 5G commercial offering will be available in 85 major cities across South Korea by the end of 2019.
