Partner Article
The deployment, which Huawei says is the world’s first ‘large-scale integrated 5G-Advanced intelligent network’, will provide services to over 10 million people in the Chinese capital
China Unicom Beijing has deployed a far reaching 5G-Advanced network covering stadiums, schools, scenic areas, metro stations, commercial areas, residential areas, and other facilities in Beijing.
The new three component carrier (3CC) network will provide 5G coverage for roughly 10 million customers within Beijing’s 4th Ring Road and the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center, 85% of which will use the latest 5G-Advanced technology.
This 5G-Advanced network offers greater speeds (up to 10 Gbps), improved network capacity, spectral efficiency, and coverage versus existing 5G networks. These capabilities make the new network perfect for supporting the latest consumer use cases, such as immersive videos, UHD live streaming, and cloud gaming, according to China Unicom and it tech partner Huawei.
But perhaps the most important aspect of this new network – at least from China Unicom’s perspective – will be its integration with AI and machine learning.
The operator has built in end-to-end automation for sites based on user service data, including AI-powered optimization of provisioning, services, iteration, and inspection. This will not only help the sites to operate more efficiently, resulting in cost savings for the operator, but allow for the rapid deployment of new services automatically, without manual intervention. In this way, this automated process will reduce the provisioning time from days to minutes.
These AI capabilities will require significant compute power to function effectively. As a result, China Unicom is deploying the necessary compute infrastructure alongside the sites themselves, allowing AI workloads to be handled locally, at the edge.
China Unicom says it is the first operator to implement this network self-provisioning and self-optimisation in lightweight scenarios.
“Large bandwidth can quickly improve user experience. Only by providing 10-gigabit network capabilities can we guarantee a gigabit experience for all users. This time, we’ve built a large-scale integrated 5G-Advanced intelligent network to bring a better experience to all China Unicom users across Beijing,” said Yang Lifan, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing. “We are confident that, based on Huawei’s advanced technologies and our smart operations capabilities, we will provide users in Beijing with an increasingly better network experience in the future.”
5G-Advanced shines at Workers’ Stadium and the Great Wall
As part of the public network deployment, China Unicom has paid special attention to the recently reopened Workers’ Stadium, one of the country’s largest football stadiums. The stadium will be supported by numerous 5G-Advanced 3CC sites, both inside and outside, allowing customers to receive download speeds of over 10Gbps.
“Field tests recorded a downlink peak rate of 11.2 Gbps, allowing a crowd of up to 68,000 people to simultaneously and smoothly watch 1080p videos. Meanwhile, the uplink peak rate reached 4 Gbps, sufficient to support services like UHD shallow compression,” explained Huawei in a statement.
The stadium’s 5G-Advanced network will also support novel use cases, including those related to the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), Internet of Things (IoT), and extended reality (XR) split rendering.
Alongside Workers’ Stadium, another area receiving a significant 5G-Advanced network deployment from China Unicom is the Great Wall Scenic Area, situated roughly 70km northeast of Beijing. This area is one of the Great Wall of China’s best preserved and most picturesque sections, receiving over 1.4 million visitors annually.
Here, China Unicom has worked with the local Yanqing District Government to deploy 5G-Advanced base stations at scale, offering the area 5G coverage both on the ground and at low altitudes of up to 300 metres. This ensures that visitors to the Wall and the surrounding area can enjoy uninterrupted network coverage wherever they are, helping to support tourism, logistics, and emergency rescue.
As user demands on the network continue to increase and AI use continues to scale, 5G networks must continue to evolve. Telcos around the world will be watching this deployment from China Unicom closely, hoping to take key lessons for their own 5G-Advanced upgrades in the near future.