Huawei and China Unicom Beijing claimed to have launched the world's largest 5G-Advanced (5G-A) "gigauplink" commercial network, spanning more than 10,000 base stations.
The network uses 100-megahertz of spectrum stretched across the Chinese capital, with tests demonstrating an uplink "effective ratio" of 83% with just 0.1% proportion of cell-edge "weak points" posting speeds of less than 20 Mb/s). The citywide network tests saw a peak uplink rate of 1 Gb/s, with an average uplink rate of 397 Mb/s.
Third-party media representatives were invited to witness the network in action, with Huawei and China Unicom claiming the performance levels were capable of supporting millisecond-level transmission and seamless interaction for AI smart glasses and “smooth communication” between AI-enabled handsets and agents.
“As we enter the mobile AI era, an increasing amount of data is generated on-site and needs to be transmitted to the cloud in real time for analysis and processing. Networks must not only ‘download fast’ but also ‘transmit stably and accurately,’” Miao Shouye, SVP of China Unicom, noted. “Large uplink capabilities are becoming an essential foundation for supporting real-time interaction in the AI era, enabling the network to better connect, perceive, and serve the real world.”
The uplink efforts were part of a long-running 5G Capital project between China Unicom Beijing and Huawei to modernize the capital’s mobile network. Beijing’s size of more than 6,000 square miles and being home to more than 22 million residents makes for a challenging mobile environment.
“By leveraging smarter, deterministic network capabilities to serve industrial innovation, urban development, and a better quality of life, both parties will jointly open a new era of intelligent connectivity," Huawei explained of its efforts.
David Li, president of Huawei's Wireless TDD (time division duplex) product line, added that specific future efforts will look at multiband pooling, uplink enhancement, and multidimensional coordination.
“We are committed to supporting China Unicom in building a high-quality, user-experience-centric 5G-A network, embracing the opportunities and challenges of the mobile AI era, and achieving win-win outcomes for the industry,” Li added.