by James E. Carroll
From our 20-year archive of telecom news, we know that NTT DoCoMo announced the first 4G mobile network trial in 2003 at its R&D facilities in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Seven years later, full-scale LTE trials were underway across the Tokyo metropolitan region. On December 24, 2010, NTT DOCOMO officially launched its "Xi" LTE service across Japan, delivering peak theoretical speeds of 75 Mbps from some buildings and 37 Mbps peak speeds across much of its national network. In the first 18 months after the service launch, DOCOMO already had 5 million subscribers (Aug 2012). The service has been a clear customer favourite since then. The carrier likewise was among the earliest mobile operators to introduce flat-rate data plans, to introduce VoLTE service, and to adopt LTE-Advanced technologies.
Given Japan’s early-adopter status for technological innovations in general, and DOCOMO’s deep R&D programmes, the 5G wave quite likely will begin here. DOCOMO has previously stated its intention to roll out commercial 5G services across Japan ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. This is likely to mean a nationwide rollout of 5G, or at least major metropolitan areas across Honshu, and not just a small collection of 5G base stations in a single neighbourhood, as some other carriers will be tempted to do just to claim to be “first” in rolling out the next generation technology.
DOCOMO press machine is already ramping up with 5G announcements every month.
8K Video over 5G
Earlier in November, DOCOMO and Sharp demonstrated a 12-channel MMT (MPEG Media Transport) transmission of 8K video over 5G. The trial, which was conducted on November 1 at its DOCOMO’s Yokosuka R&D, was supported by the Japan Broadcasters Association, a big backer of 8K video encoding and MMT encoding. Each of the 12 channels required 80 Mbps. The companies reported the successful transmission of stable multi-channel 8K video with a high bit rate to multiple devices with the use of error detection and correction technology. Japan is likely to be an early adopter of 8K consumer video screens. DOCOMO’s 5G network may be a viable platform for this application.
5G for Vehicular Communications
DOCOMO is working with Toyota, Ericsson, and Intel to test 5G to vehicles in motion. Testing earlier this month at Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo demonstrated data speeds of up to 1 Gbps for 4K-resolution video communications with a vehicle travelling at 30 km/h.
For this set-up, the moving vehicle was equipped with an Intel GOT 5G Automotive Platform terminal and a compact on-board antenna head designed for connected car trials. DOCOMO’s 5G trial environment provided coverage over the nearby Odaiba area using three Ericsson base stations and Cloud-RAN. The vehicle successfully streamed live 4K video at data speeds of up to 1 Gbps downlink/600 Mbps uplink with low latency.
The NTT Group and Toyota continue to collaborate on 5G-connected cars. We will have to see how the technology performs at higher vehicular speeds and how the network performs when thousands of connected cars in the same area try to use the network simultaneously.
5G to Connected Vehicles with Digital Signage
A further refinement of 5G-to-the-vehicle is a project underway between DOCOMO and Sony. This concept involves a 4K digital signage system fitted to the outside of the New Concept Cart developed by Sony. The idea is for the vehicle to display a concept stream of advertising as it cruises down the street.
Presumably, the content would include live streaming, otherwise, local storage could ensure high-quality video replay without requiring a 5G network. However, we can see that DOCOMO is experimenting with new concepts to leverage 5G.
Testing MediaTek’s 5G Silicon
While we await a final 5G specification, some silicon vendors are rushing pre-commercial chipsets to market. DOCOMO is working with MediaTek on one such implementation.
MediaTek’s 5G chipset claims to increase the spectral efficiency of mobile devices by up to 2.3 times compared to existing LTE technology. The device integrates DOCOMO's non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) radio access technology with MediaTek's multi-user interference cancellation (MUIC) technology, which is required to achieve NOMA.
The idea with NOMA is to multiplex signals at a base-station transmitter to leverage the increased signal processing capacity of user devices and cancel interference among multiplexed user signals. MediaTek says its MUIC technology removes interference from other users when a base station transmits a signal to a number of users simultaneously. The silicon apparently is being developed for smartphones or other portable devices as an alternative to Qualcomm or Intel 5G modems.
In covering NTT DOCOMO’s race to 5G it is important to note that collaboration with other industry players is the name of the game. As part of a mid-to-long-term strategy outlined in May, DOCOMO, which currently serves more than 70 million mobile customers in Japan, plans to launch “exciting and unexpected services” under a company-wide project called "empower+d challenge" (empowered challenge), which will “enable customers to realize their aspirations and achieve greater affluence.”
Through the creative application of virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT technologies, DOCOMO envisions that 5G will lead to new customer experiences, lifestyles and work styles.
Since early last year, DOCOMO has been an active member of the 5G Open Trial Specification Alliance, which has pushed for early 5G trial specifications across multiple spectrum bands, including bands above and below 6 GHz. Other founders of this group include KT, SK Telecom and Verizon. This work led to the inclusion of the first 3GPP 5G NR specification to be included in the upcoming Release 15 - the global 5G standard that will make use of both sub-6 GHz and mmWave spectrum bands.
Vendor collaboration with DOCOMO
Earlier this year, DOCOMO announced plans to conduct interoperability testing and over-the-air field trials in Japan based on the 5G New Radio (NR) specifications under development by 3GPP, specifically involving mid-band spectrum at 4.5 GHz and millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum at 28 GHz. The trials were to be based on device prototype and base station solutions from Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson, respectively.
Working with Huawei, DOCOMO recently conducted an outdoor 5G trial for ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) using a 4.5 GHz system. The trial featured a stationary mobile terminal that received signals at distances of 0.8 to 1 km from the base station. During the trial, DOCOMO achieved an over-the-air latency of less than one millisecond together with a packet transmission success rate of more than 99.999%. Impressive performance results!
In June, DOCOMO confirmed the addition of Nokia to it 5G ecosystem. Nokia participated in a demonstration of low-latency 4K video streaming during a 5G Tokyo Bay Summit 2017 earlier in May. More broadly, the collaboration is also known to include the Intel 5G Mobile Trial Platform, will commence with the key interoperability testing of multi-vendor technology using the 4.5 GHz frequency band.
Ongoing tests of the Nokia 5G FIRST solution include the Nokia AirScale base station transmitting over a 5G radio interface to the Intel 5G Mobile Trial Platform. The companies plan to test end-to-end applications over the air between the base station and the device on the 4.5 GHz frequency band, which is a candidate band for 5G services in Japan. The collaboration with NTT DOCOMO will specifically involve Nokia's AirScale Active Antenna equipped with massive MIMO technology and digital beamforming, designed to provide enhanced cell range, maximised performance at the cell edge and increased spectral efficiency. The 5G FIRST platform, designed to support multi-vendor end user devices for 5G, incorporates the Nokia AirScale base station and AirFrame data centre technology.
With Samsung Electronics Co., DOCOMO has demonstrated a 5G data speed of more than 2.5Gbps with a mobile device that was in a vehicle travelling 150km/h, sufficiently fast for connectivity onboard most trains. This trial took place in November 2016 at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Transmissions were conducted using the 28GHz high-frequency band. The development work also featured massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technologies that incorporate beamforming.
Cisco is supplying its Network Services Orchestrator to help DOCOMO carry out network device provisioning and transform its service lifecycle. DOCOMO first deployed Cisco’s network functions virtualization (NFV) system in 2016.
Another one of DOCOMO’s 5G partners is Sumitomo Electric. Together, the companies are looking to 5G to power the real-time collection and delivery of traffic information using high-definition sensors. There are currently tests underway at an outdoor course within the Yokohama Works of Sumitomo Electric. Sensors are installed along the course and in vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with DOCOMO 5G terminals that communicate with DOCOMO 5G base stations throughout the facility. Traffic information is analyzed in real time and then fed back to drivers and pedestrians. Clearly, the aim is the smart city, where data from the public roadways can be analyzed and shared in near real-time. For a mobile operator such as DOCOMO, a successful business case and trial would mean millions of 5G endpoints with the municipal, provincial and perhaps national governments as potential long-term clients of the network – a fantastic underwriting opportunity for the new infrastructure if such a deal could be struck,
From the municipal 5G business case to the personal
A few months back, NTT DOCOMO Ventures announced an equity investment in Petametrics, a San Francisco start-up that provides “LiftIgniter”, a personalization API to deliver a wholly unique experience to every individual user impression.
LiftIgniter was founded by Indraneel Mukherjee, a former Google researcher, and a team of machine learning and math PhDs., The personalization engine is powering various NTT DOCOMO e-commerce services. The idea here is to capture data points from consumers and then perform deep analysis to uncover macro trends. With LiftIgniter, the machine learning-based personalization algorithms run 24/7, learning and reacting to each impression in real-time to predict and serve up tailored content for every user touchpoint. The company says its platform is agnostic across all content, languages and devices. While not necessarily specific to 5G, the number of endpoints envisioned by these developers appears to be of high magnitude, meaning that is could be a very potent use case for 5G-enabled IoT.
Bryant is known for her leadership Intel’s Data Center Group (DCG) as general manager and executive vice president. Intel's DCG generated $17 billion in revenue in 2016. She also serves on the board of United Technologies.
Bitdefender, which employs 1,300 staff across nine offices, said its software is protecting 500 million users in over 150 countries. More than 40% of sales are currently generated in the U.S. Bitdefender is based in Bucharest, Romania.
DOCOMO said the new SIM will help customers planning to stay overseas long term, such as expatriates and students, to access the DOCOMO network while in Japan, but also enjoy voice and data communications services provided directly by affiliated carriers in their respective service areas overseas, thus avoiding the need to insert the SIM card of a local carrier or carry a rental device.
The NCP subsea cable, which spans more than 13,000km (8,000 miles), will link Asian landing stations in Chongming, Nanhui, Lingang, Busan, Toucheng and Maruyama with its U.S. landing station in Hillsboro, Oregon. The NCP subsea cable is expected to land in the next few months, providing capacity that can scale up to 80 Tbps.
The CEI-112G-LR project builds upon two existing 100G serial electrical link projects.
“In just a few short years, the interest in light communications has grown significantly and there is an enormous amount of valuable knowledge that vendors and operators can share as they work together to advance the technology globally,” said Nikola Serafimovski, chair of the IEEE 802.11 Light Communications Study Group. “It’s an exciting time for the light communications market sector, as it is poised for substantial growth over the next five years. We look forward to broad participation under the auspices of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group and the IEEE-SA as we work to develop the light communications market in line with industry needs, and to ensure best practices that drive market expansion.”
Radisys received an approximately $5 million order for its MediaEngine product from its large Asian customer, of which roughly $4 million is expected to be shipped in the fourth quarter of 2017, with the remainder of the order to be fulfilled in early 2018. In addition, Radisys announced that this customer recently made a cash payment of approximately $4.7 million against an existing accounts receivable balance.
ADTRAN said its Mosaic SD-Access solution enables service providers to better compete with emerging OTT providers operating at web-scale. ADTRAN will demonstrate the potential of an open, SDN-controlled network providing a reliable, scalable network that allows quick and efficient deployment of current and next-generation services.
Verizon estimates the market opportunity for initial 5G residential broadband services to be approximately 30 million households nationwide. The company also noted that the 5G residential rollout will not have a material impact on Verizon’s consolidated capital expenditures in 2018. CAPEX is expected to be consistent with the past several years.
The expedited plan call for an initial focus on 5G NR operation in 28 GHz and 39 GHz mmWave spectrum bands. The goal is to achieve robust multi-gigabit per second data rates with mobility at significantly lower latencies than today’s networks. Over-the-air trials are expected starting in 2018, that will be compliant with the first 3GPP 5G NR specification that will be part of Release 15. The trials will utilize 5G NR mmWave mobile test platforms from Qualcomm and will employ advanced 5G NR Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technology with adaptive beamforming and beam tracking techniques.
“Our new name is not just about connecting point “a” to point “b”. It reflects our strong desire to continue moving the real-time communications industry forward by dramatically improving the communications experience and encompassing the ability to ensure our contact points are elegantly and seamlessly simple to create, manage and monitor. Ribbon Communications serves as the connection across all of our worlds,” stated Ray Dolan, the company's CEO.
On closing, Sonus and GENBAND will combine into a newly formed holding company. Each Sonus shareholder will receive one share of common stock in the combined company for each existing Sonus share held; the new company will issue approximately 50 million shares to GENBAND's equity owners, plus $22.5 million in the form of an unsecured note. The combined company will have an estimated net cash position of $40 to $45 million.
“910Telecom is the most well connected data center in the Denver area and was one of our high-priority sites when we started our strategy to expand the number of carrier hotels where we have a PoP,” said Mike Fitz, President and General Manager of the Sprint Global Wireline Business Unit. “As we continue to aggressively expand our network, deploying in a major carrier hotel 910Telecom allows us to provide access to our global all-IP network to a significant number of customers.”
Vectron specializes in frequency control, sensor and hybrid solutions using the very latest techniques in both bulk acoustic wave (BAW) and surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based designs from DC to microwave frequencies. Products include crystals and crystal oscillators; frequency translators; clock and data recovery products; SAW filters; SAW oscillators; crystal filters; SAW and BAW based sensors and components used in telecommunications, data communications, frequency synthesizers, timing, navigation, military, aerospace, medical and instrumentation systems.
Box's paying customer base has grown to 80,000 businesses, including new or expanded deployments with leading organizations such as Conair, Foster Farms, HGST, LionsGate, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
