The 5G-Advanced era is now as Asia raises the 5G bar
Continuing our look at 5G-Advanced, we find out what products and services the new network will support and which operators are already planning for a new era in communications
In the first part of our two-part feature on 5G-Advanced, we looked at the fundamentals of the new standard in 5G networks and how, in short, it is making the state-of-the-art networks more intelligent. In this second part, we will concentrate on who will be making this revolution happen and where.
At this year’s MWC Asia event in Shanghai, Eric Zhao, vice-president and chief marketing officer of Huawei Wireless Solution, predicted that networks would be reshaped by the application of intelligent agents, which would simplify processes to boost network efficiency. An early example of this cited by Huawei was in a first-of-its-kind field maintenance engineer copilot based on an artificial intelligence (AI)-based assistant that autonomously generates solution policies based on expert knowledge to increase efficiency. During a field application, it was said to have facilitated the handling of an optical path fault with tenfold efficiency.
The intelligent agent was designed to enable networks to optimise experience and energy saving autonomously. The optimisation is automated based on multi-dimensional, high-precision, real-time sensing, and the generation and delivery of optimal experience and energy-saving policies. Huawei revealed that in an area covered by 223 cells, its RAN intelligent agent had been operating stably for thousands of hours, automatically maximising performance while keeping energy consumption at the lowest possible, crucial for future passive internet of things (IoT) applications. This was also the first time Huawei had worked with operators to implement such automated network operations and management.
Zhao noted how the RAN intelligent agent could enable experience-driven service operations through the real-time evaluation of network resources. This allows operators to provision new services as soon as they are needed and ensure deterministic service experience. An example cited was a 5G-Advanced-based live streaming assurance package providing fruit farmers with the deterministic uplink speeds they need to reach customers, showing how operators innovate business models to accelerate monetisation.
He also showed how in Thailand, the new infrastructure was being used to optimise networks for different operational scenarios in response to the extremes of weather that are typical in the country. With the RAN intelligent agent, operators can deploy predictive analysis of what resources will likely work and where. That is to say, during extreme rain, internal network usage rockets and external demand decreases by the same amount so resources can be aligned dynamically to reflect the likely surges in the likely places. Digital twins will be key in this use case.
“Our goal is to bring AI to networks,” said Zhao. “To achieve this, we will, for our part, shift from a solution provider to a co-builder of intelligent networks. We believe that the co-growth of RAN intelligent agent and networks will create more extensive business value, transform networks more rapidly and lead our industry into a new era of intelligence.”
As a consequence, Zhao revealed that Huawei was working on solutions that would be building RAN intelligent agents to elevate network productivity. These would contain a number of core elements, such as a telecoms foundation model, intelligent computing power and a RAN digital twin system, and they would look to achieve four main objectives: intent-driven interaction; full-domain sensing and prediction; multi-objective analysis and decision-making; and scenario-based self-learning.
Bringing AI to networks
The presentation also revealed that as of the end of June 2024, Huawei was working with five partners in the stated mission of bringing AI to networks in the 5G-Advanced era. The aim, said Zhao, is that “the journey begins, [and] with each small step, we get far and wide”. To make this happen, the initial plan was to have around 1,000 site engineers in 10,000 sites in five cities – Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Jinan and Shenzhen – working within a half year.
The partners involved in this mission encompass industries such as telecoms operators, cloud gaming, live streaming and short video. In a keynote speech at MWC Asia during the 5G-A: Paving the way for shared success event, Huawei’s executive director of the board and chairman of the ICT infrastructure managing board, David Wang, discussed how 5G-Advanced would be the path forward for the 5G industry and introduced the initial roster of operator partners the company would be working with to make this happen.
Huawei’s plan going forward would be to continue to support operators’ innovation efforts in networks, services and ecosystems, and help them build differentiated competitiveness in the 5G-Advanced era. The ultimate goal would be to promote high-quality industry development and enable digital and intelligent transformation for a better and more intelligent world.
Wang said that after five years with “standard” 5G, it was time to change lives and industries with 5G-Advanced. Indeed, the next step would be for industrial development, with 5G-Advanced having stronger capabilities and creating a wider business scope. Key applications supported included passive IoT and non-terrestrial network infrastructures.
As we look towards 2030, the industry as a whole will need to ramp up efforts to reinforce 5G-Advanced technologies and support the healthy development of 5G. This is how we will ensure a prosperous 5G industry in the long term and make the world a better place
David Wang, Huawei
“5G-Advanced will protect vested investment while creating new business opportunities by expanding business boundaries,” Wang remarked. “As we look towards 2030, the industry as a whole will need to ramp up efforts to reinforce 5G-Advanced technologies and support the healthy development of 5G. This is how we will ensure a prosperous 5G industry in the long term and make the world a better place. Huawei looks forward to working hand-in-hand with the industry to build healthy 5G-Advanced ecosystems, upgrade 5G-Advanced standards and share in the benefits of 5G-Advanced development. Together, we will bring the intelligent world into reality, faster.”
He also predicted that AI would power three key changes in the mobile industry over the next five years, namely more content data, more interaction and more AI devices. Looking at the former, Wang expected video bit rates to increase from 0.5Mbps in 2023 to 15Mbps in early 2030. In terms of interaction, there would likely be an increase from 5.3 usage sessions per day in 2024 to 24 per day in 2030.
As regards devices, Wang said Huawei would be working in an industry that would see the number of phone shipments supporting AI grow from 11% in 2024 to 90% in 2030. Underpinning this would be the power of 5G-Advanced-based mobile experiences. In the scenario of fixed wireless access (FWA), Wang calculated that 5G FWA would support speeds of up to 300Mbps, whereas 5G-Advanced would guarantee download speeds of between 1Gbps and 10Gbps.
Pioneering with partners
For Huawei, a bedrock of the new ecosystem will be the 5G-A Pioneers Program developed with operator partners and based on six specific “consensuses”. These will aim to maximise the value of advanced 5G-Advanced capabilities, promote 5G-Advanced development, and further advance the industry by promoting pioneer operators, pioneer cities, business model upgrades, high-quality networks, service innovation and thriving ecosystems.
Huawei and partners launch 5G-A Pioneers Program and unveil plans to integrate AI into networks
Among the technology partners Huawei introduced at MWC Asia was Hong Kong Telecom (HKT), for which head of wireless and chief technology officer Sheldon Yau revealed there would be a multi-layered 5G-Advanced network strategy to fulfil multiple services. “Basic 5G” would offer connectivity for wide coverage 5G RedCap services and passive IoT using spectrum in the 900MHz and 700MHz bands. “Fundamental 5G” would use 2.6GHz, 2.1GHz and 1.8GHz bands to support general RedCap and provide territory-wide coverage for NR2100 and 1800 bands. The operator’s “5G-A ultimate” services, meanwhile, would use 28GHz, 4.9GHz and 3.5GHz to deliver deterministic experiences and capacity and to support high-speed RedCap.
In terms of key use cases, HKT saw potential in expanding mmWave coverage at indoor hotspots via lamp sites. For example, enhancing network resilience at stores and malls and supporting live streaming at what the company called mega-events. The 5G-Advanced network was seen as being able to ensure uninterrupted service and manage effectively extreme network loads. HKT also said it would use mmWave bands to help carry FWA traffic, in particular at remote villages and islands, and for mobile backhaul for transmission diversity.
In Oman, operator du UAE launched 5G-Advanced services in January 2024, with the aim of unlocking new market segments. Its head of technology operations, Abdulla Baghopum, explained how the company had 99% fibre-to-the-home coverage in the country of 10 million people and boasted around the same percentage in terms of 5G population coverage. The typical monthly entry price for home broadband is around $70.
Outlining his firm’s mobile strategy, Baghopum noted that 5G-Advanced represents a continuum on leading-edge mobile, which began in April 2021 with 4G, then standard 5G a year later. 5G-Advanced was first trialled in October 2023, before services began in anger three months later.
5G-Advanced was the bedrock of the telco’s next generation of FWA in markets in which it aimed to compete on the capability to differentiate speeds and latency. Specifically, it wishes to offer guaranteed speeds and experience, symmetric data rates and Wi-Fi management. The company also aims to use the capability of 5G-Advanced on mobile and enterprise, monetising B2B and B2C opportunities. Steps included to do this would be to offer intelligent personalised experiences and an FWA suite, and then ultimately a slicing function and what it calls a 5GtoB suite.
For regional neighbour Omantel, 5G-Advanced is regarded as no less than building a new artery for a 10Gbps society. Ali Al Hashmi, general manager of infrastructure planning and design at the company, told the MWC Asia conference that the telco would be working in line with its home country’s Oman Vision 2040, for which it was creating a digital economy strategy, driven by data and automation, and leading the nation’s digital transformation. The timeline would see integrated smart government by 2025, and the digitisation of principal economic sectors from 2026 to 2030. From 2031 to 2035, Omantel expects to be exporting digital economy services and have a digital economy platform fit for the next five years at least.
Since launching its first 5G site in 2019, Omantel is on track to have around 80% of traffic on 5G by the end of this year. Additionally, its 5G FWA network is said to be facilitating nationwide demand for high-speed home broadband and enterprise connectivity.
With 5G-Advanced, Al Hashmi said the company anticipates offering market-leading 5G services by maximising network capabilities and enhancing user experiences and business applications. Recent 5G-Advanced trials have seen the company achieve speeds of 10Gbps using mmWave and TDD carrier aggregation and demonstrate RedCap capabilities with cameras and other CPE. Over the past year, it has also already verified the capability of ambient IoT/passive IoT. However, Al Hashmi described 5G standalone for enterprise private networks as being “a pivotal step toward realising the full potential of 5G and paving the way for 6G”.
So that’s five different operators, from two different regions, each seeing 5G-Advanced as being a key to innovation and excellence and driving their countries towards a digitally empowered future. Huawei’s Wang summed up proceedings by saying the 5G-Advanced era is now. It’s not a question of if, nor indeed when. The 5G-Advanced future is already happening.
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