IMC 2018: Airtel, Huawei Showcase 5G Use Case Demos

Reiterating its commitment to bring 5G to India, Chinese tech giant Huawei on Thursday showcased 5G use case demos in partnership with Bharti Airtel, at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2018 here.

Huawei partnered with Airtel to conduct an "AR (augmented reality) Holographic Communication" using 5G New Radio (NR) non-standalone architecture (NSA), showcasing their achievements in 5G service exploration.

Using the Holographic Communication, users can feel fully immersed when communicating with a live hologram.

"Having partnered India in its 4G revolution, the 5G demos are the next step in bringing world-class technologies and solutions to India, helping operators enable 5G network deployments, explore possible use cases and facilitate business success," Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India said.

"With our 5G demonstrations in partnership with Indian operators, (Bharti Airtel) we would like to involve everyone in the process, and give India a glimpse of the digital future," Chen added.

AR technology presents immense possibilities in use cases of assisted learning and training, gaming, live events and entertainment.

AR's experience requires end-to-end technical support backed by a network that is extremely fast, is able to handle large volumes of traffic, but still had low latency.

"Ubiquitous high-speed networks will open doors to a digital world that will be full of exciting digital innovations. Having conducted India's first in-lab 5G test with Huawei, we are delighted to extend our partnership to demonstrate cutting-edge AR and VR (virtual reality) based use cases for 5G," said Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer, Bharti Airtel.

At the IMC 2018, Huawei also showcased 5G end-to-end solutions including 5G NR and core and IP RAN. The 5G solution focuses on C-band, aligned with India specific 5G spectrum bands.

Huawei exhibits also featured solutions for harnessing 5G technology in existing generation of networks with solutions such as CloudAIR, Massive MIMO and Intent driven network.

To help global carriers roll out 5G networks, Huawei has developed a full range of 5G solutions, from 5G devices to base stations, to 5G transport, 5G core and chips.

Huawei said it would also launch a 5G-ready Kirin chip and a 5G smartphone in India next year.