The 5G service you enjoy on your mobile phone may have been launched years ago, but the technologies used to deliver that service continue to evolve in order to improve its performance — as well as the efficiency of the network.
As the networks evolve, they gain the capability to deliver 5G in new ways – and wholly new services as well.
One challenge mobile operators have in delivering 5G is in managing a mix of different spectrum bands – including high, mid and low frequencies — with different characteristics. In recent years, network technology has evolved to allow operators to group multiple bands together.
Strengthening the capacity of low-band spectrum
Huawei Technologies, one of the chief suppliers of radio access networks to mobile operators globally, has developed 5G network radios that group a variety of different frequencies and spectrum types, including uplink and downlink wireless connections.
Recently, the company has commercialised triple-band radios to aggregate low-band spectrum, with highly integrated designs that support three bands in each radio element – power amplifier, filter and antenna dipole – for greater efficiency. Strengthening the capacity of low-band spectrum – which has wider coverage than other spectra – will help networks that have especially large cells. It will also help networks penetrate indoor spaces more deeply.
5G and Massive MIMO
High radio integration is important because it can help make radios smaller and lighter and thus easier (and less expensive) for operators to deploy. And that’s become more important as 5G performance has required larger antenna arrays known as Massive MIMO. As 5G networks evolve, those antenna arrays are changing too.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataIn 2022, Huawei introduced even more advanced radios with Extremely Large Antenna Arrays, or ELAA, that take network performance and 5G service quality to new levels. In Huawei’s latest multiband ELAA radios, each band gets its own antenna array rather than having to share dipoles. As a result, the radios’ performance is not compromised by loss, and the performance of the different bands is synchronised, enhancing the average user experience.
In addition to efficiently managing multiple spectrum bands, using spectrum in new ways allows operators to both improve network performance and unlock revenue-generating use cases.
Faster 5G transmission
Uplink connections are also growing increasingly important. Historically, mobile subscribers have demanded faster download speeds to consume content. But increasingly consumers and businesses alike need faster transmission speeds in the other direction to stream and broadcast video content that they create themselves.
New generations of 5G network technology are evolving to meet this need, with stronger uplink connections. Huawei has produced 5G radios with different combinations of signal receivers and transmitters. As a result, the company says it can support 1 gigabit per second uplink speeds in some cases.
Wide angle coverage
At the same time, other new technologies are advancing 5G networks in different ways. Huawei introduced the PanoAAU radio unit, whose wide-angle design broadens its coverage area to 180 degrees, whereas most radios only cover a third of a cell or less. This wide-angle coverage is helpful in rural areas but also, configured vertically, can serve tall buildings and drones in flight better than traditional radios. PanoAAU radios can simultaneously serve mobile broadband consumers and drones that are up to 600 meters above the ground.
The PanoAAU achieves its wide gaze thanks in part to a burgeoning area of technology whose use is on the rise in 5G networks. “Meta-materials” are manmade materials not found in nature with special structures and attributes that allow them to bend, reflect or focus radios waves. The PanoAAU includes a meta-material lens that gives it its wide-angle capabilities. It also includes dynamic spectrum selection and flexible beam adjustment features to help operators evolve their networks over the long term.
New 5G technologies – new materials
Huawei has introduced new 5G radio technologies in other products as well, including their lightest radios: the EasyAAU family. In years-long collaboration with the Singapore Antenna Research Center, Huawei developed new film materials in which traditional metal elements were transformed through precise film processing to become as thin as paper.
Huawei uses this paper-thin film in what it calls its “leaf” antennas, which are smaller and lighter than traditional antennas and have reduced circuit loss, improving their performance and energy efficiency. These are just a few examples of the fact that, although 5G networks have been providing services for years, their evolution shows no signs of stopping. Network equipment makers are already applying AI to find new ways to improve the 5G-Advanced network, and in a few years, they will evolve significantly enough to be given a new name for a new era of technology: 6G.
