[Shanghai, China, June 28, 2018] At Mobile World Congress Shanghai (MWC Shanghai) 2018, Huawei and China Unicom jointly published a whitepaper on 5G-oriented digital evolution of indoor coverage. The white paper analyzes opportunities and challenges facing indoor network deployment in the 5G era and explores how to scientifically build indoor 4G networks to ensure they can efficiently evolve toward 5G in the future.

Huawei and China Unicom publish whitepaper on 5G-oriented digital evolution of indoor coverage.

The white paper notes that 5G services are much more diverse than simple voice and data services in the 2G/3G/4G era. 5G services require ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency and massive numbers of connections. Traditional distributed antenna system (DAS) networks cannot fully meet the requirements of 5G services, as the component capabilities and networking of the DAS do not permit smooth evolution to 5G. By deploying the Digital Indoor System (DIS), surging data requirements in the 4G era can be satisfied while smooth evolution to 5G at a reasonable cost is supported.

Bob Wang, Senior engineer from China Unicom, said: "Digitization is the trend in indoor network construction, especially in high-traffic scenarios such as airports, stations, subways, schools, hospitals and exhibition halls, where optimal mobile network experience must be guaranteed. However, there are still a number of challenges facing indoor 5G network construction, including how to handle high-frequency coverage shrinkage, 5G-oriented network deployment, and network O&M in the 5G era."

The 3GPP 5G R15 standards were frozen this June, focusing on eMBB requirements and solutions. DIS meets the needs of eMBB users for high bandwidth and low latency, and also supports active headends, IT-based cables, and visualized O&M. Its architecture also makes it easier to evolve to 5G.

"We deploy 5G-oriented indoor coverage digital networks based on the principle of going digital and not moving cables or adding sites," said Peng Honghua, president of Huawei's Small Cell Product Line. "Huawei is customer-centric as always, and is dedicated to delivering the most competitive and appropriate products for carrier customers to continuously provide users with a superior network experience."