5G Second Half: Millimeter Wave Enters Reality

From ‘calm’ to ‘stirring up waves again’, operators and millimeter waves will inevitably be deeply bound. Only in this way can we truly unleash the maximum potential of 5G. After more than five years of “tutoring”, although the domestic millimeter wave industry has gained momentum, there is still a long way to go for its future development.
Be calm and calm
The love hate relationship between 5G and millimeter waves has a long history.
Time goes back to 2017. At that time, due to the weak industrial chain and high cost of components and deployment, the three major domestic operators had a mixed love and hate for 5G millimeter waves.
The clear meaning of “love” is that the millimeter wave frequency band has abundant resources, with a narrow wave bandwidth of 400-800Mhz and a wireless transmission rate of 10Gbps, which can bring greater communication capacity and application space to 5G systems.
The clarity of ‘hate’, the maturity of the millimeter wave industry chain, and the technological advantages of millimeter wave compared to other frequency bands will affect the deployment scenarios and scale of millimeter wave. Meanwhile, millimeter wave services and networking capabilities need further verification. In addition, the millimeter wave equipment system is not complete, and integrated micro RRU devices have not yet emerged, which cannot meet the diverse needs of operators in various scenarios.
In addition to the above factors, the distribution of spectrum determines the timing of millimeter wave application deployment, which in turn affects the pace and scale of millimeter wave deployment. If the spectrum planning time window is advanced, it will activate more innovative applications.
At that time, Yi Zhiling, the chief scientist of China Mobile Research Institute, foresaw that “5G, this little fresh meat, needs to continue to strive to catch up with millimeter wave, this white and rich beauty
More intimate
After more than five years of pursuit, 5G is no longer the “little fresh meat” it used to be, becoming increasingly mature and stable. Its relationship with millimeter wave “white wealth and beauty” has also bid farewell to one-way pursuit and become more intimate. We can also see some clues from the attitude of domestic operators towards millimeter waves.
Liu Guangyi, the chief expert of China Mobile Research Institute, stated at the “5G Millimeter Wave Technology Innovation Seminar” held in 2019 that China Mobile has completed the verification of key 5G millimeter wave technologies and is currently conducting verification of 5G millimeter wave system performance and standard solutions from 2019 to 2020.
China Telecom has made it clear that the millimeter wave field will become one of the key technologies in the “second half” of 5G development. In terms of standard pre research, we focus on the core key technologies of 5G millimeter wave, actively participate in millimeter wave standardization work of international organizations such as ITU and 3GPP based on our actual needs, promote the enhancement of R16/R17 MIMO performance, high-precision positioning and other millimeter wave key technologies, as well as the standardization work of millimeter wave performance and RF testing. In terms of key technology testing, actively participate in millimeter wave field testing and related specification development organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. At the same time, millimeter wave testing work is also carried out on its own testing site.
China Unicom, which has been actively leading the development of the millimeter wave ecological industry chain, is even more of a “fast horse and a whip”. In December 2022, China Unicom released the “China Unicom 5G Millimeter Wave Technology White Paper 3.0″, which clearly disclosed that it will promote the realization of millimeter wave network capabilities in three stages: the video rate policy situation in 2023 will be tested for millimeter wave network scenario deployment; Conduct key capability testing and verification such as R18 in 2024; Deploy innovative millimeter wave applications in 2025.
Raise the waves again
The attitude of the three major operators towards millimeter waves is becoming increasingly clear, accelerating the development of the domestic millimeter wave industry with new “waves”.
In my opinion, the millimeter wave frequency band is a critical infrastructure, and the first deployed operator will have a significant differentiation advantage. Without the use of millimeter waves, the maximum potential of 5G cannot be achieved.
To accelerate the maturity of the millimeter wave industry, some experts suggest that the development of the mobile communication industry be comprehensively considered and millimeter wave frequencies be allocated to operators. Xu Bo, Deputy Director of the Radio Management Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also revealed that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will base itself on the current situation of the industry and introduce a phased plan for the use of 5G millimeter wave frequency bands.
On January 4, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on matters related to the planning and adjustment of microwave communication system frequency usage and radio management, allowing millimeter wave acceleration to “shine into reality”.
This notice specifies that by adding the millimeter wave frequency band (E-band, 71-76GHz/81-86GHz) and planning the frequency usage of large bandwidth microwave communication systems, optimizing the frequency and channel bandwidth of existing microwave communication systems in the middle and low frequency bands, adjusting the channel configuration to align with international standards, etc., we will further meet the needs of high-capacity information transmission (microwave return) scenarios such as 5G base stations, and reserve spectrum resources for China’s 5G, industrial internet, and future 6G, To better meet the needs of all parties and promote the high-quality development of wireless industries such as microwave communication.
This adjustment includes the millimeter wave frequency band in the usage plan for the first time, and millimeter wave applications in China are expected to be rapidly promoted. With the issuance of future millimeter wave frequency band usage licenses, China is expected to become the world’s largest millimeter wave market.
A heavy responsibility and a long way to go
The development of 5G in China is steadily advancing, and millimeter wave is an important field for further exploration of 5G in the future. In my opinion, towards the next step of 5G evolution, we should fully utilize the advantages of 5G millimeter wave technology, unleash higher technological dividends, and empower a digital and intelligent society. Only in this way can we continuously improve the experience of China’s 5G network.
Former Chairman of China Mobile, Wang Jianzhou, said, “Using millimeter waves in 5G can play a good role, especially in hot areas with particularly concentrated data volume and in enterprise private networks. In addition, we also need to accumulate experience for using millimeter waves in 6G摄图网原创作品
So, millimeter wave needs to be developed, and the resurgence of the domestic millimeter wave industry is not surprising. At present, Huawei, ZTE, China Information Technology Corporation, and Nokia Bell have all completed 5G millimeter wave independent networking laboratory function testing and field performance testing, and achieved excellent results. MediaTek has released its first mobile platform that supports 5G millimeter wave, Tianji 1050, which supports millimeter wave and Sub-6GHz full band 5G networks, providing users with a more complete 5G experience, and more
In my opinion, although the domestic millimeter wave industry is on the rise, there is still a long way to go for its future development.
On the one hand, the domestic millimeter wave industry started relatively late. Although it has undergone years of “tutoring”, the accumulation of core technology is limited, and the situation where key millimeter wave core chips are monopolized by international semiconductor companies still exists;
On the other hand, the short board problem of millimeter wave technology still exists. Under typical conditions, its signal coverage and indoor penetration ability are still relatively poor compared to the spectrum below Sub-6GHz. This means that the potential cost-effectiveness of wider bandwidth will be diluted by the overhead of network density and providing a satisfactory experience outside of hot spots with insufficient mobile network coverage.
This also means that China’s millimeter wave industry chain still needs to further increase technological innovation, expand application scenarios, and prosper the industrial ecosystem, so that 5G and millimeter wave spectrum can write a true “little love song”.


Post time: Nov-09-2023