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Huawei has unveiled a series of cutting edge 5G technology at MWC 2019
Huawei has stepped up its preparations for 5G rollout around the world, with the launch of a swathe of new products and solutions that will streamline network rollout across the globe.
Huawei showcased its impressive 5G credentials at a packed, pre-MWC briefing at London’s Savoy hotel. The company began proceedings by showcasing a live 5G conference call, between Huawei’s Ryan Ding, CEO for the Carriers Business Group, and representatives from Vodafone, EE and Three UK, as the UK’s key mobile network operators showed their support for Huawei.
Huawei has already sold over 40,000 5G base stations and has won 30 5G commercial contracts around the world, making it the world’s biggest network equipment provider for 5G.
With mobile network operators around the world making preparations for 5G rollout in 2019 and 2020, Huawei is launching a range of products and services that will help MNOs better manage their networks, providing cost effective solutions to facilitate next generation connectivity.
Huawei’s chief marketing officer of its Wireless Network Product Line, Peter Zhou, says that 5G rollout will occur much quicker than with previous generations. 3G network penetration took 10 years to reach 500 million subscribers, with LTE taking 5 years. Zhou believes that 5G could achieve 500 million subscribers within 2 to 3 years.
With 5G rollout still in its infancy, mobile network operators are struggling to balance the increased operational expenditure (Opex) that 5G will bring with the complexity of the networks they will deploy. To help overcome these challenges, Huawei has launched a series of solutions for autonomous driving mobile networks, including the MBB Automation Engine (MAE) and BTS5900 base stations with powerful computing capability. Both products will facilitate increased automation, improved energy efficiency and reduced opex.
The brain of the network
Huawei’s MBB Automation Engine acts as the brain of the automated mobile network. MAE leverages powerful AI to shift from a simple network management framework to a convergence of network management and control.
"MAE watches the services and changes network resources more efficiently, managing the network like an intelligent brain," said Zhou.
The evolution from 4G to 5G networks will demand a step change in network complexity and will demand increasing levels of network automation.
"You can think of it like driving a car. You can turn on cruise control if you are on the motorway travelling in a straight line, but if you are driving in the crowded streets of Central London you can not do that," he said.
Huawei’s MBB Automation Engine offers strong scalability and will enable the full automation of the 5G network coverage planning and modelling process.
Next generation base stations
Huawei also unveiled its BTS5900 base stations which offer enormous computing capability of 8 T FLOPS. Next generation mobile networks will demand base stations that can manage radio resources more accurately and maximise resource utilisation.
Speaking exclusively to Total Telecom at the pre-MWC event in London, Huawei’s CEO for the Carrier’s Business Group said that he had supreme confidence in his company’s new releases.
"I’m sure that our competitors have perfectly usable base stations but its like the difference between driving an average car or driving a Porsche. I would strongly urge you to compare our offering with that of our competitors, particularly in terms of energy efficiency, size, weight and cost," he said.
By combining the use of the MBB Automation Engine and Huawei’s BTS5900 base stations in their networks, Huawei states that operators would be able to improve their O&M efficiency by 10 times, while simultaneously improving their user experienced data rate by 30 per cent, and saving energy consumption by 30 per cent.
"We have cooperated with a number of operators. Through practice, Huawei’s automation solutions have started to bring automation value into some key scenarios," said Zhou.
