5 Insights Into the Readiness of 5G
At Huawei Day0 Forum 2019 on February 24, the day before Mobile World Congress 2019 kicked off, Adrian Scrase, the Head of 3GPP MCC & CTO of ETSI, answered five key questions about 5G:
- Is 5G phase 1 already complete?
- Is 5G phase 2 on target for 2020?
- Is 5G ready for deployment?
- Is 5G a global standard?
- Is 5G secure?
Here are his answers:
1. Is 5G phase 1 already complete? YES
The specs for 5G NR were completed in December 2017, six months ahead of schedule. Early release has the met request of industry organizations that wished to deploy 5G early in non-standalone (NSA) mode.
According to 3GPP’s Release 15, NSA mode is where 5G networks are supported by existing 4G infrastructure. In this case, 5G smartphones will connect to 5G frequencies to improve data-throughput, but they will still use 4G for tasks that aren’t related to data.
The remainder of 5G Phase 1, which includes the Next Generation Core Network, was completed on schedule in June 2018 and stabilized in September 2018, enabling deployment in standalone mode.
2. Is 5G phase 2 on target for 2020? YES, with a 3-month delay
5G Phase 2 will be ready in H1 2020. It comprises two aspects: 5G Expansion and 5G efficiency.
5G Expansion includes areas like Vehicle to X (V2X), URLLC enhancements, Unlicensed spectrum operation, 5G for Satellite, Industrial IoT, and Above 52.6GHz
5G Efficiency includes Interference Mitigation, SON & Big Data, 5G MIMO enhancements, Location and Positioning Enhancements, Power Consumption Improvements, Dual Connectivity Enhancements, Device Capabilities Exchange, Mobility Enhancements, Non-orthogonal Multple Access (NOMA).
3. Is 5G Ready for Deployment? YES
5G is being deployed now.
Specifically, Options 2 (standalone) and Option 3 (non-standalone) are completed and they form basis for the first deployments of 5G.
4. Is 5G A Global Standard? YES
639 member organizations in 45 territories participated in 3GPP from Africa, Asia, Australia, Greater Europe, N. America, and Central America.
Moreover, a wide range of enterprises spanning multiple industry verticals are 3GPP members, ranging from advertising and agriculture to satellite and social media.
4. Is 5G Secure? YES
5G is more secure than 4G, with security and privacy enabled by a variety of factors including secure virtualized and exposed network functions, secure service-based interfaces between network functions, single security anchor for all access networks, and a unified authentication framework.
However, 3GPP points out that security isn’t just about standards – it also includes application security and careful deployment.
Click the link to find out more about how Huawei is blazing a trail in the 5G space.
Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.
