There was a big news last month that China Mobile was going to launch 5.5G commercial deployment in Hangzhou.
As a result, the intern in the office started to complain after listening to it, saying that he was still using the 4G package to benefit from the 5G network speed. He didn’t know when he would be able to use 5.5G, let alone what the extra 0.5G could be used for. It seemed like 5.5G It's like it has nothing to do with him.
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To be honest, I'm quite curious. After all, 5G is already powerful enough. I don't know if I can use the extra half-G boost.
So in order to answer this doubt, Tony also studied it carefully.
The name of 5.5G is called 5G-Advanced, or 5G-A for short, which means 5G enhanced version.
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The reason why they call it 5.5G is simply that it is more intuitive. You can tell that it is the transitional stage between 5G and 6G. Before this, there were 2.5G, 3.5G, and even 3.75G, all of which were complete.
Although the name is not very creative, the organization that named it 3GPP has a really big background. Over the past two decades, they have researched all the way from 3G to 5G, updating the technology version almost every two years.
In 2017, 3GPP defined several stages of 5G development. This year is exactly the midpoint of the development from 5G to 6G, so it is naturally called 5.5G.
Compared with 5G, the most obvious improvement of 5.5G is the network speed.
It can reach downlink 10Gbps (10Gbps) and uplink gigabit (1Gbps). Compared with the 1Gps downlink rate of the 5G network, 5.5G is 10 times faster. In other words, you can play Genshin Impact in less than half a minute using 5.5G. If you watch a high-definition live broadcast outdoors, it's totally stupid if it doesn't freeze.
In addition to fast network speeds, 5.5G also offers lower latency. 5G latency is generally between 5 and 10 milliseconds, while 5.5G is expected to reduce latency to less than 1 millisecond. This provides conditions for XR devices to go out of the house.
This type of equipment not only needs to transmit 4K 60 or more XR videos at high speed, but also needs to have the ability to interact in real time. The two major features of 5.5G just match it.
However, wearing XR equipment to go out and enter the “metaverse” seems a bit nonsense now. It sounds like dumplings made for the vinegar of 5.5G.
There is also a plate of dumplings, and another big application is the passive Internet of Things.
As the name suggests, it is an IoT device that does not require an external power supply. It can collect radio frequency energy, light energy or heat energy in the environment to maintain its own operation. Although the radio frequency energy of 5.5G is similar to that of 5G, the power consumption of the equipment is about 30% lower, and the coverage area of 5.5G is expected to be larger and more devices can be loaded. These provide better solutions for the passive Internet of Things. development conditions.
Although it sounds a bit like pie, as early as last year, the logistics vehicles in Hangzhou Asian Games Village used passive Internet of Things. It can track the location of vehicles in real time to facilitate scheduling, and can also monitor the temperature of lithium batteries 24 hours a day, eliminating the cost of manual inspections.
For the manufacturing industry, this pie is quite good. After all, a passive IoT sensor is the cheapest for just over 3 yuan, and it also eliminates the cost of later maintenance. Used in cold chain transportation, it can detect the temperature and location of goods in real time; used in workshops, it can dispatch materials in real time; used in farms, it can also monitor the body temperature and other health characteristics of animals in real time.
For us, there should be more low-cost, maintenance-free smart home products in the future. . . Bar?
Anyway, Tony had to eat this cake first to honor him, and he didn’t know how many years it would take before he could get a bite of the filling.
Talking about 5.5G, how does it surpass 5G? Tony compared the updates of previous versions of 3GPP and found the names of many new technologies.
If everyone said it, this issue would probably become a 5.5G white paper. Let’s pick two important ones and talk about them in detail.
They are ultra-large-scale MIMO and carrier aggregation. Tony gave everyone several analogies to try to explain everything clearly.
Ultra-large-scale MIMO, we have to split it in half to explain. MIMO means “Multiple Input Multiple Output System”. We can understand that unloading and replenishing goods are carried out at the same time. This technology has been applied in the 4G era.
If mobile phones and base stations are compared to express delivery vehicles and express delivery stations, the transmitted signals are equivalent to packages, and the antennas are equivalent to couriers.
The 5G era uses massive MIMO, which is equivalent to a large express delivery station. Although the scale and number of couriers are better than those in the 4G era, when the express delivery peak period comes, the express delivery vehicles are stuck and express delivery handovers also slow down.
The ultra-large-scale MIMO of 5.5G is equivalent to the express station owner transforming the supermarket next door into a express station. The clerks are still many and diligent, and the efficiency is doubled again. Express transmission can be completed at high speed during the express delivery peak period, and the express delivery vehicle will not get stuck. Unable to move.
As for carrier aggregation, it is better to understand. When we usually “look up information” on the Internet, behind the scenes are “carrier waves” transmitting data signals, just like conveyor belts transporting packages.
Conveyor belts are limited in width and can only transport a certain number of packages at a time. Carrier aggregation is equivalent to merging several conveyor belts together. The conveyor belt is wider and the efficiency of transporting packages is faster.
This technology is not new. Operators used this trick when they first started promoting 4G. At that time, the peak downlink rate was only 300Mbps and the available bandwidth for a single user was only 20MHz, which was still far from the ITU standard for 4G. It wasn't until operators aggregated five carriers that 4G reached the international standard of 1Gbps downlink rate at rest and 100MHz available bandwidth for a single user.
Such an artifact that can both increase network speed and efficiently utilize spectrum resources has naturally been inherited by 5G and even the current 5.5G.
However, the “conveyor belt” of 5.5G aggregation is faster and wider, so you don't need 5 to achieve the desired effect. Moreover, the 5.5G combined conveyor belt method is more flexible, and it will also use “high-speed conveyor belts” that 5G does not have, which is equivalent to upgrading the entire transportation chain, and the network speed will naturally be faster.
At this point, everyone should be aware of it, right?
The 5.5G network speed is really fast, and the technology upgrade is really amazing, but I really don’t have any worries in my heart. After all, Tony just stays at home playing games and watching videos every day. Usage scenarios such as going out to download large files or going to high-speed rail stations to download movies have almost nothing to do with me.
It certainly cannot be said that it is useless, but at least for now, Tony feels that 5.5G is just an “addition” to mobile phones. In line with the principle of “something is better than nothing”, if you want to change your mobile phone recently, you can check to see if they use Qualcomm X75 or MediaTek M80 baseband. In theory, such mobile phones can support 5.5G in the future. Several recent flagship phones A wave of OTAs have also been officially announced.
But if your mobile phone can last a little longer, you might as well wait with Tony~ At least when we can connect to 5.5G when we go back to our hometown to go to the market during the Chinese New Year, it will be too late to change.
Editor: Noodles
Artistic Editor: Sunshine
source:
Huawei – What is MIMO?
Zhihu – Carrier Aggregation
C114 – 5G-A passive IoT empowers new logistics for the Asian Games and injects new technological momentum into the digitally intelligent Asian Games
MDPI – Emerging MIMO Technologies for 6G Networks
Nokia, GSMA, 3GPP