PRESS RELEASE: Huawei’s innovative PanoAAU was selected as “an excellent ICT case” from 2023 by the News and Publicity Center at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The solution has been widely recognized for its outstanding performance in promoting network infrastructure construction, narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural areas, improving user experience, and advancing green development.
More than 2 million 5G base stations have already been deployed in China. Rural areas, however, are vast and sparsely populated, and as such they pose higher requirements on the coverage capabilities of 5G networks. With this in mind, Huawei has innovated a cost-effective networking solution for rural areas — PanoAAU. It uses wide-angle extremely large antenna array (ELAA) and an ultra-high-resolution wide-angle beam management algorithm to expand the horizontal coverage of a single sector from 120° to 180° and achieve efficient coverage in two-sector networking. This significantly reduces network construction costs while also delivering better coverage than the 8T three-sector configuration.
In terms of engineering design, the PanoAAU uses ultra-light integrated antenna elements, low-insertion-loss feeding networks, and Meta lens materials to overcome some of the challenges related to antenna weight and transmission loss, and deliver large-angle and high-performance wireless coverage. It has played an important role in popularizing and optimizing 5G networks in rural areas, and has provided strong technical support for common prosperity and rural revitalization.
In terms of software design, the ultra-high-resolution wide-angle beam management algorithm customized for PanoAAU ensures that traffic-channel beams can accurately and quickly target users. This significantly improves user experience and cell capacity. It also increases traffic in rural areas and further drives the growth of the mobile Internet industry. By 2030, the number of 5G connections around the world is expected to reach 5 billion and the mobile industry is projected to contribute USD6 trillion to global GDP.
In addition, PanoAAU has made positive contributions to the achievement of the carbon peaking and neutrality goals. By reducing the number of modules deployed at sites, incorporating 4G frequency bands on the live network, and enabling both 4G and 5G services, this solution delivers superior 5G performance and improves 4G coverage. It also reduces the total energy consumption of base stations by more than 30%, and in doing so, embodies Huawei’s commitment to sustainable development.
Currently, PanoAAU has been piloted and commercially deployed at scale in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhejiang, Hebei, and Jiangxi. It has helped operators in these areas reduce costs and improve network construction efficiency. It also delivers consistent 5G experiences in both urban and rural areas and drives balanced development and digitalization.