On Jan. 7th, MIIT held the “5G technology R&D test” launch meeting. President of CAICT and leader of IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group Cao Shumin introduced the overall planning of 5G test in China. She said, China’s 5G test will be divided into two steps, namely technology R&D test (2015 to 2018) and product R&D test (2018 to 2020). The current focus is mainly on technology R&D, which is divided into three stages: key technology verification stage (Sep 2015 to Sep 2016), technical solution verification stage (Jun 2016 to Sep 2017) and system verification stage (Jun 2017 to Oct 2018).
Keep in step with international to carry out 5G test
Judging from the international developments,ITU has completed the research of 5G vision researches, and it will start 5G technology scheme solicitation in the end of 2017 and complete establishment of 5G standards by 2020. 3GPP will also start 5G standards researches in early 2016, the first version of 5G standards will be formed in 2H18 and the full version that meets the requirements of ITU will be completed by the end of 2019. In the other hand, IEEE has started setting standards for the next generation WLAN (802.11ax) since early 2014, which is expected to be completed in early 2019. Main countries and regions in the world have successively put forward 5G test plans and commercialization schedules,aiming to lead the global 5G standards and industry development.
China’s 5G technology R&D test will be carried out by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group under the leadership of MIIT and with supports of the National Science and Technology Major Project. The main goals are to support formulation of 5G international standards and boost 5G R&D and industry development. At the signing ceremony of China-Europe 5G Collaboration Joint Statement that held on Sep. 28th, 2015, Ma Kai, vice premier of China, pointed out that China will strive to launch 5G networks in 2020.
Build a 5G public experimental platform based on Beijing LTE test external fields
In the aspect of organization and management of 5G test, Cao Shumin said that the first is to build a unified test platform The IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group will carry out 5G technology R&D test under the unified leadship of MIIT. Based on the LTE test external fields in Huairou District and Shunyi District of Beijing, China will construct a unified 5G public test platform to carry out performance tests of key technologies, technical solutions and systems.
The second is to set unified test requirements. To meet the 5G technical requirements that the ITU has proposed, China will make unified test specifications and requirements. In order to provide greater innovation space for the participating enterprises, the test will support a variety of key technologies and technical solutions.
The third is to establish the unified specification group and test group, which will be formed inside the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group and take charge of the formulation of test specifications and field tests, respectively.
Key technologies verification will be completed in Sep. 2016
So, what is the overall planning of the 5G test in China?
Cao Shumin said, the 5G test is divided into two steps: the first is technology R&D test (2015 to 2018), which will be organized by CAICT and jointly participated by operators, equipment vendors and scientific research institutions; the second is product R&D test (2018 to 2020), which is organized by domestic operators and participated by equipment vendors and scientific research institutions.
Cao Shumin pointed out that the current emphasis is technology R&D test and is divided into three stages: key technologies verification stage (Sep 2015 to Sep 2016), which will focus on performance test of single point key technology prototypes; technical solution verification stage (Jun 2016 to Sep 2017), which will merge with multiple key technologies and carry out single base station performance tests; system verification stage (Jun 2017 to Oct 2018), which will finish networking technology performance tests of the 5G and carry out demonstration of typical 5G services.
During the key technology verification stage from Sep 2015 to Sep 2016, the test target is to carry out technical verification of 5G potential wireless key technologies, drive R&D of the 5G key technology, verify performances of 5G key technologies and promote consensus formulation in establishing 5G technical standards as soon as possible. The test sites are in either self-owned external fields of the enterprises or the MTNet lab. The key technologies being tested include large-scale antennas, ultra dense networking, new multiple access technique (SCMA, PDMA, MUSA, etc.), new multiple carriers (f-OFDM, UFMC, FBMC, etc.), advanced code modulation (Polar codes, multiple LDPC codes, etc.), network key technologies(network slice, network edge computing and storage, new mobility management and connection management, etc.).