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Huawei launches 5G SingleRAN Pro

Huawei's new SingleRAN Pro solution provides an intelligent network management system, cloud network architecture, and support for 5G, 4G, 3G, and 2G.
Written by Corinne Reichert, Contributor

Chinese networking giant Huawei has unveiled its 5G SingleRAN Pro, which it said combines 5G, 4G, 3G, and 2G across one network, with an automatic intelligent management system and a mobile cloud network architecture.

By supporting 5G while maintaining compatibility with the previous protocol generations, Huawei said the platform ensures carriers' "current investment will not be wasted once 5G arrives". It uses a multi-Radio Access Technology baseband with a multi-band, multi-channel antenna and radio frequency unit with Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (Massive MIMO).

Huawei's Mobile Cloud network architecture then allows operators to use the same software for on-demand centralised base station deployment (CRAN), distributed base station deployment (DRAN), and CU-DU split deployment, while also cloudifying spectrum resources.

"CloudAIR is featured to enable on-demand rapid spectrum allocation," the networking giant added, explaining that this improves spectral efficiency for carriers.

Air interface capacity is also cloudified on the 5G SingleRAN Pro, enabling network slicing.

Lastly, Huawei claimed its automated artificial intelligence-based wireless network management system "simplifies" network operation and maintenance.

Huawei Wireless Solution chief marketing officer Dr Peter Zhou said SingleRAN Pro was developed as a result of experience gained in deploying hundreds of networks globally over the last 10 years, and will "significantly" reduce carriers' capex in rolling out 5G networks.

Meanwhile, Huawei has also announced gaining the European Union certification authority's verification requirements for its C-band Massive MIMO Active Antenna Unit 5G New Radio (5G NR) products, achieving TÜV SÜD's CE-type examination certificate.

"Obtaining this EU mandatory certificate indicates that Huawei's 5G products have won official approval for commercial use. It also represents a significant step towards realising large-scale commercial 5G deployment," Huawei said.

"Huawei strictly followed related regulations during each step of 5G product development, from component selection to product design. After multiple rounds of meticulous assessment and inspection, Huawei's 5G products passed TÜV SÜD's verification at the first attempt, meeting all stringent CE requirements."

Huawei in February also announced the launch of its first 5G customer premises equipment (CPE), a commercial terminal device supporting 3GPP 5G standards.

The CPE involves a Huawei-developed Balong 5G01 chipset, which it labelled as being the world's first commercial 3GPP 5G chipset supporting download speeds of up to 2.3Gbps across sub-6GHz and millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum bands.

"The Balong 5G01 makes Huawei the first company offering an end-to-end 5G solution through its network, devices, and chipset-level capabilities," the Chinese networking giant said during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018.

According to Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu, Huawei has invested $600 million in 5G R&D since 2009 across network architecture, spectrum, field verification, and other trials.

Following the standardisation of 5G NR specs in December, Huawei -- along with Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Samsung, AT&T, BT, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, KT Corporation, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, MediaTek, NEC Corporation, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Qualcomm, SK Telecom, Sony Mobile Communications, Sprint, TIM, Telefonica, Telia Company, T-Mobile USA, Verizon, Vodafone, and ZTE -- announced the beginning of the full-scale development of 5G NR including large-scale trials and commercial deployment.

"Huawei will keep working with global partners to bring 5G into the period of large-scale global commercial deployment from 2018," president of Huawei's 5G product line Yang Chaobin said at the time.

In October, Huawei and LG U+ had announced completing dual-connectivity technology verification during a 5G trial in Seoul, providing 20Gbps downlink speeds by simultaneously linking two 5G base stations; while in November, Huawei additionally demonstrated separate uplink-downlink (UL/DL) decoupling technology across a 5G-LTE network deployment in London as part of its strategic partnership with BT.

Huawei has been trialling 5G with carriers worldwide, including Singaporean telcos StarHub and M1, Canadian telco Telus, British telco EE, and Australian provider Optus.

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