Next-Gen 5.5G networks can offer 10 Gbps for 100 bn connections with '1+1+N', Huawei claims

The ongoing 5G network deployment promises ultra-high speeds, but there are quite a few challenges. As smartphone usage explodes, there will be billions of devices needing reliable access to wireless internet connectivity. Huawei has proposed a novel '1+1+N' approach that will be geared to offer a 10 Gbps experience for about 100 billion connections.

At the Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS) 2022, Gan Bin, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Wireless Solution delivered a keynote speech titled "Endless Exploration, to Start a New Journey with 5G". He prophesied:

“5.5G will deepen the digital and intelligent transformation with ubiquitous 10 Gbps experience and 100 billion connectivity. Together with industry partners, Huawei will explore ultra-high bandwidth, uplink spectrum reconstruction, ELAA-MM, green air interfaces, and native intelligence to help operators build '1+1+N' 5.5G networks and upgrade network capabilities.”

While the world is racing towards 5G, Huawei is fine-tuning the next incremental upgrade. While 5G promises to exponentially increase speeds and reduce latency, it could also help millions of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. The proposed 5.5G networks could help boost digitalization and intelligence. For that to happen, mobile networks will need access to, as well as assure, a ubiquitous 10 Gbps experience, while keeping the latency within milliseconds.

The current experimental 5G network infrastructure could theoretically offer about 5 Gbps. Hence, the telecom industry will need to deploy a 10 Gbps experience layer on top of the existent 5G Gbps foundation network, Huawei said. This would not only ensure a reliable network with low latencies, but it could also reliably accept the next wave of internet-connected devices.

The 5.5G networks will need a "1+1+N" approach. Such networks will need at least a 1 GHz spectrum to guarantee a ubiquitous 10 Gbps experience. Huawei has also suggested deploying Extremely Large Antenna Array-Massive MIMO (ELAA-MM) to ensure the co-coverage between the C-band and higher bands based on extremely large antenna arrays.

Huawei has merely proposed the parameters needed to reliably scale the high-speed mobile internet ecosystem. Although there could be billions of active wireless internet connections in the future, it would be up to telecom companies to decide the most optimum and economically viable approach.

Next-Gen 5.5G networks can offer 10 Gbps for 100 bn connections with '1+1+N', Huawei claims