Huawei has released its plan to evolve 4G network technology to what it calls 4.5G vision at the GSMA Mobile 360 Series. Huawei plans to launch 4.5G in 2016. Huawei’s 4.5G technology will aim to provide users with ultra HD, 3D and possibly holographic videos. It is expected to open the era of Internet of everything as well as service-oriented network architecture prior to 5G being commercialized.
Scheduled for commercial launch in 2016, Huawei’s 4.5G research starts by looking at the ongoing 3GPP releases for LTE and LTE-Advanced. 4.5G standardization forms a part of this and is expected to be completed in 3GPP releases 13/14.
Key features of 4.5G technology include the lower latency at 10ms, a peak download rate of around 6 Gbps and the support of 100,000 connections within a one kilometer square. Network designs will have to support new techniques for air interface, spectrum frequency and architecture. These include higher order MIMO, massive Carrier Aggregation, Semi Orthogonal Multiple Access (SOMA), shorter wireless scheduling time, the use of unlicensed spectrum, open and agile network cloud architecture to facilitate quick new services deployment.
