Huawei Completes Its First 5G IPRAN Bearer Network

Technology Author: Shiyu Tang Feb 15, 2019 05:50 PM (GMT+8)

Recently, Huawei has cooperated with China Telecom, and completed the first 5G IPRAN bearer network on the existing network, according to Huawei’s website.

The applications of 5G. Photo: Credit to Huawei's Facebook Page

Recently, Huawei (华为) has cooperated with China Telecom (中国电信), and completed the first 5G IPRAN bearer network on the existing network, according to Huawei’s website.  The cooperation was completed in Chengdu, and it is the first upgrade for IPRAN of existing network to support the 5G technology. This is the first step towards 5G bearer network, and marks its commercial capability.

Currently, China is developing its 5G network and year 2019 is the first stage of building the 5G network. As the frequency is higher and the propagation loss is bigger, it is difficult to build the 5G full coverage in the beginning. The mobile suppliers need to choose the construction between non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA). To be brief, SA is to build the end to end 5G network, whilst NSA refers to the co-networking of 5G and LTE. NSA could build the 5G New Radio (NR) based on the existed 4G network, which will quickly cover 5G network. On the other hand, SA networking is designed for 5G, which could show its enhanced ability. Huawei has cooperated with China Mobile (中国移动) on its 5G end to end test, and provided technology support to China Telecom (中国电信) on 5G SA network interconnection

As there are dual methods to construct the 5G networking, the related bearer network should consider the requirement of the choices of 5G networking construction, the 4G and 5G same station construction, the connecting requirement to the existing network. Also, the bearer network should consider the broadband of latency of the 5G network. Huawei’s construction on the 5G network for China Telecom shows the probability to upgrade the existing network to the 5G bearer network.

As the 5G IPRAN bearer network is developed on the existing network. Whilst RAN refers to Radio Access Network, it has the functions of multi-operations, wider broadband, the guarantee of QoS (Quality of Service) and the high reliability which is already applied to the existing 4G network. Huawei’s 5G IPRAN test in Chengdu covers multiple dimensions like the networking function test, networking performance test and reliability test. This test has completed the mixture deployment of PW+L3VPN and EVPN (Ethernet Virtual Private Network), the interoperation of LDP (Label Distribution Protocol) Tunnel and SR (Segment Routing) Tunnel. The 5G IPRAN bearer test also connects successfully with IPv6, the broadband, latency, Jitter and loss tolerance. The test result shows the 10 GE Ethernet Connection, low latency in milliseconds (ms), Jitter in microsecond (us), 0 loss tolerance and 50 ms protection switching, which meets the requirement of 5G networking.

The completion of the 5G networking shows that the current IPRAN equipment has the bearing capacity of 5G. As stated above, Huawei can provide technology support to build the SA networking construction as well. With the support of both SA networking construction and 5G IPRAN bearer network, 5G is revealing itself clearer to us under the support of Huawei’s technology.

As the leading telecommunication company in China and as well as worldwide, Huawei is the company which can represent the technology development in China. China has the plan to provide 5G networking in 2020, and Huawei is putting its effort in the plan. Huawei also provides technology support to other countries. The United States is paying attention to Huawei recently as well that the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo came close to issuing an us-or-them ultimatum to nations buying from Huawei. Pompeo said in Hungary that contract with Huawei could limit the availability of U.S. equipment. The reaction of United States also shows Huawei’s strong technology in telecommunication, and Huawei is keeping its pace developing its technology in China and worldwide.