Qualcomm Technologies and Chinese vendor ZTE said they have successfully showcased features required in anticipation of 5G mmWave rollouts in China.
The two firms said they carried out trials with the aim of supporting the testing needs of the IMT-2020 (5G) promotion group for 200-megahertz carrier bandwidth over 5G mmWave.
The tests were completed using a smartphone form-factor test device powered by the Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF system, and ZTE mmWave AAU network infrastructure equipment.
The chipmaker noted that these tests marked the first connection in China using 5G New Radio Standalone Dual-Connectivity (NR-DC, or FR1+FR2 DC) with one 200-megahertz carrier in the 26 GHz mmWave band, along with one 100-megahertz carrier in the 3.5 GHz (n78) band, achieving a peak downlink speed of over 2.43 Gbps using a single device.
In the tests, Qualcomm and ZTE also achieved a peak downlink speed of over 5 Gbps using a single device using carrier aggregation with four 200-megahertz carriers in the 26 GHz (n258) mmWave band and successfully tested two 200-megahertz mmWave carriers on the uplink. The use of Standalone (SA) that uses a 5G core (5GC) network allows for capabilities such as network slicing and lower latency.
“China has been pushing ahead with 5G development on a stable track, and mmWave will be a key focus of 5G in the future,” said Wen Ku, vice chairman of the council and secretary general for the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA). “For the next step of 5G, we should fully leverage the advantages of 5G mmWave technology to unlock higher benefits and empower a digital, intelligent society. CCSA will support and advance the development of mmWave technology for enhanced 5G network experiences in China.”
“This latest milestone with ZTE underscores important progress towards 5G mmWave commercialization in China to unleash the full potential of 5G and drive mmWave adoption globally,” said Yan Chenwei, SVP of product management at Qualcomm Technologies.
Tang Xue, vice general manager of RAN Product at ZTE Corporation, said, “We’re pleased to work with Qualcomm Technologies to achieve this milestone, which lays a technology validation foundation for 5G mmWave commercialization. With broader 5G opportunities enabled by mmWave, we will join hands with partners to continuously drive mmWave development, create ultimate experiences and usher in a wonderful 5G era.”
Qualcomm noted that 5G mmWave allows mobile operators to use vast spectrum resources in bands above 24 GHz to deliver massive network capacity and extreme multi-Gigabit performance in industrial, enterprise and consumer scenarios.
China is conducting 5G mmWave end-to-end tests to accelerate the maturity of technology and product, which enables the industry to pave the way for 5G mmWave commercialization.
