“5.5G is the only way to upgrade and evolve the 5G network since 6G is still in the early research stage” Yang Chaobin, senior vice president of Huawei and president of ICT products and solutions affirms during the MWC 2023 Barcelona, Spain( February 27 to March 2) at the “Joining Hands in the 5.5G Era”
A report highlight that the industry is accelerating to form more possibility in the network and will define 5.5G technical specifications through three versions of 3GPP Release18, Release19, and Release20 till the time. Thereafter it continues to enrich the technical connotation of 5.5G. Whereas F5.5G has been released from The industry advocates for the implementation of standard design. Release 18 will not be there in H1 in 2024.
Last year in September ETSI released the F5G Advanced white paper. The first standard version of F5.5G, Release 3, which took the lead in defining, will be sealed in H1 in 2024. IETF and IEEE are also fully carrying out the standard work related to the first phase of Net5.5G such as SRv6, Wi-Fi 7, and 800GE, and the relevant standards will be fully released in 2024.
Yang Chaobin pointed out that spectrum resources are the cornerstone of wireless networks, and the 5.5G industry will jointly promote Sub 100GHz spectrum to NR: on the one hand, the current stock spectrum will gradually move towards 5.5G through spectrum refarming and on-demand integration; on the other hand, jointly promote millimeter wave and U6GHz ultra-large bandwidth spectrum is commercially available, providing resource guarantee for 5.5G.
Additionally, 5.5G will realize the on-demand integration of existing 5G network resources through key technologies such as stock spectrum refarming and equipment multi-mode multiplexing, and gradually evolve to 5.5G smoothly, fully protecting the existing investment of operators.
OMDIA unfurl Net5. The 5G white paper aligns industry goals from technological evolution, application scenarios, and industrial ecology aligns the industry rhythm and accelerates the commercial process. GSMA led industry partners to form the 5.5G Community during the conference. In 2022 WBBA (World Broadband Association) also formally established and released the Next Generation Broadband Roadmap white paper for F5.5G.
The authorized official of Huawei Yang Chaobin is convinced that breakthroughs have been made in many key technologies of 5.5G with the joint efforts of the industry. Innovative technologies such as ultra-large-scale antenna array (ELAA) and virtual large-carrier reconstructed discontinuous spectrum (MBSC) for wireless networks have been verified by multiple operators around the world, bringing 5.5G 10G capabilities into reality.
The development of 5.5G / F5.5G drives the upgrade of the IP network, enabling Net5.5G. Found in the F5.5G fixed network, 50G PON has been standardized by ITU-T as the next-generation PON, and key technologies such as uplink and downlink symmetry and multi-mode integration continue to develop and mature, laying the foundation for the smooth upgrade and evolution from F5G to F5.5G.
Seeing the progression it was previously estimated that users will reach 100 million as 2023 approaches the number of 5G users worldwide will exceed 1 billion, the number of Gigabit broadband users will reach 100 million, and there will be more than 20,000 5G industry applications. Net5.5G continues to enhance in terms of 800GE ultra-broadband, end-to-end IPv6+, intelligence, security, and delay, bringing new capabilities, new products, and new opportunities to operators and stimulating their continuous growth.
