At the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2024 (MBBF 2024), Li Jie, President of Huawei’s 5G<E TDD Product Line, delivered a keynote speech at the 5.5G Industry Development Summit, remarking that the explosive growth of connections in the mobile AI era signals the need for greatly improved connection quality.
Networks must have abundant bandwidth resources and multi-dimensional connection capabilities, including downlink, uplink, latency, and reliability, to enable real-time AI interactions. Therefore, it is an inevitable trend to build high-bandwidth TDD networks that integrate multiple bands. Huawei provides extremely large antenna array (ELAA) technology and an all-band, all-scenario product portfolio to align coverage across scenarios and enable ubiquitous deterministic connections, driving business success for operators.
TDD’s High Bandwidth Is Key to Delivering Deterministic Connections in the Mobile AI Era
In the 5G era, TDD’s 100 Mbps bandwidth offers a cross-generation network experience 10 times better than that of 4G, driving rapid growth in short video and live streaming services. This accelerates traffic monetization and boosts business success for operators.
2024 sees the growing application of AI in devices. Currently, over 100 types of AI devices, such as AI smartphones, robots, and glasses, are available on the market, and more than 3 million AI apps have been released on major platforms like Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, and Huawei’s HarmonyOS. The proliferation of AI devices and apps is driving the evolution towards AI-generated content and expanding interactions from unimodal to multimodal, from one object to many, and from indoors only to everywhere. To support AI interactions anytime and anywhere, networks must provide multi-dimensional (beyond speed) and deterministic capabilities, among which low latency and high reliability are the key.
Abundant bandwidth resources are the foundation of multi-dimensional and deterministic capabilities, as they allow for near-theoretical-minimum user latency and sufficient network backup solutions for high reliability, as evidenced by Little’s Law and the supply chain system assurance theory, respectively. Given the currently-available spectrum of global operators and future industry trends, TDD spectrum such as C-band, upper 6 GHz (U6G), and mmWave will be the only high-bandwidth resources available to operators in the future. Therefore, operators who are looking to build low-latency and high-reliability neural-like communications networks or support mobile AI interactions with 5.5G must acquire and efficiently use TDD resources.
Full-Series TDD Solutions Support Deterministic Connections by Providing Seamless Coverage
In the future, TDD spectrum will be gradually used in the construction of high-band and multi-band networks. TDD ELAA technology can mitigate TDD spectrum’s coverage limitations, helping operators build high-quality networks with controllable investments. Huawei has applied the ELAA technology to C-band since 2021, boosting the uplink and downlink coverage of C-band by 30%. This technology has become a preferred choice for global operators to deploy high-quality commercial 5G networks. As 5.5G networks transition to the mobile AI era, Huawei will further upgrade its ELAA technology to support an even larger antenna array of over 2000 elements for mmWave high-frequency AAUs (HAAUs) and ultra-large channels for U6G 256T AAUs. This upgrade is expected to achieve seamless coordination between high- and low-band coverage, thereby facilitating ubiquitous, multi-dimensional, and deterministic 5.5G experiences.
To help operators expand into diversified scenarios and new markets, Huawei has developed innovative M.E.P series solutions. ‘M’ represents MetaAAU, a unique solution that can help build a gigabit coverage foundation network. ‘E’ stands for EasyAAU, which is the lightest of its kind in the industry and is a lightweight alternative to conventional 8T RRUs, weighing only half as much. EasyAAU offers significant benefits, including a 40% reduction in deployment time, doubled network capacity, 5 dB better coverage, and 30% better experience. Supporting simplified 5G deployment in all scenarios, EasyAAU is ideal for operators to flexibly deploy networks in urban areas or enhance user experience in suburban areas. PanoAAU, the ‘P’ component of Huawei’s M.E.P series, leverages a Wide-angle technology to implement 3D beam extension for air-ground integrated coverage, driving low-altitude economic growth.
To support quick network deployment in areas with limited antenna installation space, Huawei has rolled out simplified and innovative TDD solutions. Its mmWave HAAU features the industry’s highest bandwidth of 1.6 GHz. Tailormade for urban hotspots, the module supports an average speed of 6 Gbps in line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios and 3 Gbps in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios. For TDD multi-band network construction, Huawei offers the industry’s first dual-band MetaAAU, which integrates modules through high-density ELAA design to achieve optimal experience and energy efficiency.
At the summit, Huawei also unveiled BladeAAU X, the industry’s only 2A+1P hyper-integrated module. Leveraging FreSIP 2.0 fully-transparent antenna technology, the module supports integration of all sub-6 GHz bands. With a single-antenna design, it can be quickly deployed in space-constrained areas, and has already been deployed on a large scale globally. For example, operators in the Netherlands use Meta BladeAAU solution for quick deployment and delivery at 70% of sites with limited antenna installation space, and innovative MetaAAU ELAA technology to improve the average user experience by 30%.
Deterministic Connections Facilitate Multi-dimensional Experience Monetization
90% of operators have monetized traffic brought by growing 5G services, with leading ones seeing a 5G traffic ratio of over 50% and a double-digit increase in revenue. As 5.5G network capabilities evolve towards more dimensions and higher determinacy, operators will unlock new revenue streams through multi-dimensional experience monetization. In China, operators are addressing the underutilization of high-end data plans by aggregating network, cloud, and intelligent capabilities to provide differentiated experiences for users. Notably, China Mobile Beijing has launched innovative 5.5G data plans for business travel, live streaming, gaming, and stadiums, driving rapid growth in both user base and revenue. Furthermore, as AI devices and apps gain popularity, operators are incorporating more AI-related privileges into their data plans to attract more high-value users.
Concluding the summit, Li said, “With the mobile AI era on the horizon, booming AI devices and apps are driving increased demand for interactions, presenting significant opportunities for operators. To seize these opportunities, operators must harness TDD’s high bandwidth and speed to build multi-dimensional and deterministic 5.5G networks. We’ll support their efforts by iterating our technologies and optimizing our TDD product portfolios. Ultimately, operators will be able to deliver premium AI interaction experience and adopt a multi-dimensional monetization approach for long-term business growth in the 5G and 5.5G eras.”