NTT DoCoMo announced today that a 5G trial it conducted with Nokia Networks at the Roppongi Hills high-rise complex in Tokyo on October 13 achieved ultra-high-speed data transmission in excess of 2Gbps. The trial used millimeter-wavelength signals with an extremely high frequency of 70GHz, a key development for the eventual commercial use of 5G wireless technology in actual-use environments. To date, no test had achieved a 5G data transmission in a commercial complex, such as a shopping mall, due to problems with base stations being out of line of sight and diffused reflections causing the attenuation of highly directional millimeter signals.
This time, however, the trial was successful thanks to the use of two new technologies: beamforming, which focuses radio waves in a specific direction, and beam tracking to control beam direction according to the mobile device’s location. Also, in a separate trial that DoCoMo conducted with Samsung Electronics in Suwon-city, South Korea on November 12, a maximum data-receiving speed of more than 2.5Gbps was achieved in a vehicle travelling with a speed of 60km/h. The trial used a 28GHz high-frequency signal in combination with beamforming with a high number of antenna elements and beam tracking.
DoCoMo has been collaborating directly with a number of world-leading vendors in trials and development of 5G mobile communication technologies since May 2014. Going forward, DoCoMo will continue to research and develop advanced network technologies aimed at the commercial launch of a 5G next-generation mobile communications system by 2020.
