SKT to develop 4 times faster 5G ‘next generation Wi-Fi’
Kang Eun Seong | esther@ | 2017-10-24 10:55:46
SK Telecom revealed that it succeeded in developing the next generation Wi-Fi technology and AP that has the maximum speed of 4.8Gbps for the first time in Korea and demonstrating it at its Bundang building. The photo shows SK Telecom researchers demonstrating the next generation Wi-Fi. Photo by SK Telecom
SK Telecom has developed `Next Generation Wi-Fi` technology that supports 5G speeds four times faster than the current Giga Wi-Fi in smart phones.
SK Telecom revealed that it succeeded in developing next-generation Wi-Fi technology and access point (AP) with maximum speed of 4.8Gbps and demonstrating it in Bundang office building.
The next-generation Wi-Fi technology is able to utilize 802.11ax-based technology, a standard set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), to deliver speeds up to 4.8Gbps. This is about four times faster than the current Giga WiFi (1.3Gbps, 802.11ac), which is widely used in smartphones. It utilizes four antennas to transmit and receive radio waves, and the utilized frequency bandwidth is 160 MHz, twice as large as Wi-Fi. 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands are used. When the next-generation Wi-Fi is commercialized, more stable wireless Wi-Fi service becomes possible even in a traffic density environment. SK Telecom increased the efficiency of next-generation Wi-Fi by applying technologies such as simultaneous data transmission (OFDMA, MU-MIMO) for multiple users and Wi-Fi performance improvement (DSC) in AP congestion areas.
SK Telecom plans to build a next generation Wi-Fi AP centered on traffic density areas. Customers can use the service with the launch of a device with a next-generation Wi-Fi enabled chipset.
SK Telecom plans to build a test bed (test space) in Bundang office building to make a commercial AP by the end of the year. The company expects next-generation Wi-Fi to be commercialized next year in smartphones as soon as global makers have already released chipsets based on the standard (802.11ax).
Park Jin-hyo, head of network technology director at SK Telecom, stated, "We have developed the next generation Wi-Fi technology for 5G speed in Korea for the first time in Korea and have built a foundation to greatly improve the convenience of mobile users. We will continue to provide differentiated services to our customers."
By Kang Eun Seong esther@