Huawei and NTT DOCOMO Japan, in a joint 5G trial, have succeeded in transmitting high speed data over a distance of 1.2 km on the 28 GHz mmWave spectrum. The field trial, which took place at the Tokyo Skytree in downtown Tokyo, was conducted in an environment where a base station working at 28 GHz was placed at Tokyo Skytree’s viewing deck at a height of 340 m above the ground, while the user equipment was placed on the roof of a shopping facility at the Asakusa Station.
Under adverse conditions of a -10 dBm penetration loss which came from the window glass of the viewing deck, the partners achieved more than 4.52 Gbps downlink throughput and 1.55 Gbps uplink throughput with a coverage range of 1.2 km.
Huawei’s 5G base station which supports Massive MIMO and beamforming technologies, has been used in these trials to support successful long distance data transmission over the 28 GHz mmWave band. In addition, the 5G core network and 5G mmWave test user equipment (TUE) has been provided by Huawei to enable an end-to-end 5G network. Visitors to this open field trial experienced next generation video communication using a Microsoft HoloLens over the end-to-end 5G network. An immersive experience was created during the live demonstration, with clear voice calls and smooth video footage free of freezing being displayed.
According to Huawei, the high-speed and long distance transmission is one of important technical challenges for 5G mmWave conditions. This successful long distance live-demo on a 5G mmWave is a groundbreaking achievement in their joint effort with NTT DOCOMO to build a fundamental 5G commercial environment. The success provides an early step in realizing the goal of commercializing 5G by 2020.
