3 mobile carriers and device industry to proceed with 5G-LTE network interconnection

Korean mobile carriers are expected to increase the speed of 4G LTE up to 1.4Gbps by 2020, commercializing 5G (G) mobile communication at 20Gbps. A 20Gbps speed is the rate at which one can download two gigabytes (GB) of film in one second. 1.4 Gbps is the rate at which about 180 megabytes (MB) of data can be downloaded per second. As a result, 5G is 15 times faster than the 4G maximum speed.

LTE speeds may be even higher as mobile carriers expand their LTE frequency and related base station equipment and handsets, but the technology is expected to be difficult.

According to the related industry on May 1, although 5G is commercialized around 2020, it is difficult to expect the 5G nationwide service immediately as the network investment cost is huge. In areas where 5G service is not available, 4G service is inevitable.

In consideration of this, Korean and foreign mobile telecommunication companies and equipment makers decided to use `Non Standalone` (NAS) standard, which links 5G with LTE network, at the 3GPP wireless general meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia in March, last year. It was a joint proposal to complete, and it was finalized.

5G and LTE network interconnection is a handover technology that is able to provide mobile communication services seamlessly between a base station and a base station, and is automatically connected to 4G when out of 5G service area. In terms of mobile carriers, 4G can increase the communication speed to increase competitiveness.

Therefore domestic mobile telecommunication companies have developed `Carrier Aggregation` (CA) technology to bundle existing frequencies, 256 QAM, a base station technology that improves frequency efficiency by 33% (MIMO), which increases LTE speed by doubling the number of mobile handsets (from 2 to 4).

Chipset makers Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm are also developing next-generation chipsets that can boost speed. Qualcomm representative explained, "Next-generation chipsets can go in a direction to increase communication speed by attaching 4 × 4 mimo to each frequency."


SK Telecom has revealed that it would speed up the bandwidth by combining the frequency bandwidths of five frequency bands, which are currently in use, with 256 QAM and 4 x 4 mimo. The company plans to apply two 4 × 4 mimics to the 3CA in the second half of this year to speed up to 900Mbps. The company plans to add 800Mbps by adding one 4 × 4 mimo to the 4CA by next month, or to speed up to 700Mbps by 5CA alone. A company representative said, "There is a limit to how 4 × 4 mimo is applied at present due to the technical limitations of terminal and base station software. When the next generation chipset developed by Qualcomm, we can speed it up. He also added, “This is an enormous cost to build a 5G network or increase the number of antennas in a 4G network. Therefore, we plan to invest in a specific plan by looking at market requirements."

Another company representative explained, "8 × 8 mimo (to increase the number of antennas to 8), which can double the speed compared to 4 × 4 mimo, is theoretically able to speed up to 2Gbps. However, there is no plan to commercialize it. If we apply 8 × 8 mimo, we have to add an antenna, which can make the terminal size too big. "

Meanwhile, KT and LGU Plus can now boost speeds up to 1Gbps by applying 256 QAM and 4 x 4 mimo technologies to four frequency bands of three bands and three frequency bands of three bands, respectively. The companies are planning to increase the speed under situation analysis.

An industry expert said, "Although KT and LGU Plus will determine the maximum speed depending on the increase and decrease of data traffic, it is possible to increase the speed by changing the frequency band currently used for 3G to LTE. However, discussions with 3G network business and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning should be made."

By Na Won Jae nwj@


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