Optus has been testing 5G Standalone tecnology for nearly one year
Australian operator Optus has recently launched its 5G Standalone network after nearly a year of testing, Lambo Kanagaratnam, Optus’s VP of networks, said in a blog post.
The executive noted that the 5G Standalone network will enable network slicing, cloud orchestration, edge computing and self-healing networks.
“With 5G Standalone, there is no reliance on the 4G radio and core network. It is run over the 5G core and unlike 5G Non-standalone it uses 5G to communicate from the device to the base station, allowing more devices to communicate simultaneously at higher speeds. It is this ‘standalone’ aspect, with no anchoring to 4G infrastructure, that makes its capabilities and characteristics so incredible,” Kanagaratnam said.
“Users will be able to access Optus 5G Standalone on selected plans with a 5G SIM in a compatible handset such as a Samsung S22 or OPPO X3. Over the next few months, more handset manufacturers are expected to offer 5G Standalone capability on their devices,” the executive said.
“With network slicing you will be able to access a unique slice of 5G Standalone. Slicing the network into different virtual segments allows each slice to be uniquely configured to optimize speed, latency and other attributes important to our customers’ requirements. This will offer increased flexibility, maximum efficiency and, for enterprises, the opportunity to improve operations through automation,” he added.
Last month, Optus completed what it claimed to be the first four component-carrier carrier aggregation 5G Standalone data call in the country.
To achieve this milestone, Optus collaborated with Nokia and MediaTek utilizing Nokia’s 5G AirScale product line and MediaTek’s Release 16 M80 modem in a smartphone form factor to achieve enhanced speeds and improved capacity during the trial.
The 4CC data trial combined Optus’ low-band spectrum and 2,100 MHz FDD bands with 2,300 MHz and 3,500 MHz TDD bands to achieve 4x carrier aggregation.
Optus also noted that 4CC technology will be a key enabler for advanced 5G use cases in the areas of virtual and augmented reality as well as real-time gaming.
In May, Optus, Nokia and Samsung Electronics Australia announced that they have achieved a data session using three-component-carrier (3CC) Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology over a 5G Standalone network in Australia. For this trial, Nokia used its latest commercial AirScale Baseband and radio portfolio powered by its Reefshark chipset over Optus’ commercial network. The trial combined the FDD band with the TDD band using CA technology.
In November 2021, Optus announced the launch of a 5G Standalone trial. The Australian carrier has been working with Ericsson on its 5G Standalone core network.
In May 2021, Optus switched on its first 5G mmWave commercial sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Meanwhile, in July 2020, Optus said it was testing 5G mmWave technology in partnership with Ericsson. Also in 2020, Optus had successfully implemented spectrum sharing technology from Ericsson to make an end-to-end 5G video test call while simultaneously streaming video content on a 4G device.
