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NEW DELHI: Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei said that 5G deployment in India will happen in line with the global timeline, and the market here has to align itself with the global ecosystem to take early advantage.
In an interaction with ET’s Danish Khan, Huawei’s senior solutions director, Radhey Shyam Sarda, and director of integrated solutions and marketing, Chandan Kumar, discuss the current Indian telecom landscape and 5G technology, along with possible uses cases. Edited excerpts
How Huawei is driving 5G talks in India?
Radhey: In India, 4G has grown at a very fast pace and it will continue to do so in near future. 4G is evolving to what we call as LTE-A, and it is also introducing newer technologies like narrowband IoT. Some of the services, which 5G is going to bring, 4.5G or LTE-A is introducing them to the market. 5G will basically bring several diversified services with varying requirement, and the key point is that this will all be supported in the same network.
We think that in India, 5G will happen in line with the global timeline and recently, we heard about C-band spectrum being talked about as a band for 5G. Talks have already been started and we think that it may be a good time to even look at other spectrum bands such as millimetre wave band.
We have to align ourselves with the global ecosystem. The early adopters of 5G are using specific spectrum bands. We need to also align ourselves with those spectrum bands so that we can take advantage of global ecosystem and bring 5G early to the market.
Chandan Kumar, Huawei
Chandan: Moving from 4G to 5G, it is a revolutionary step, wherein the application cases in 5G will be usage of technology in verticals; in cross-industry, cross-domain networks. The implementation of 5G will require engagement from different stakeholders who were earlier not a part of this eco-system.
When we are making a technology, which can address the needs of new stakeholders from cross-industry, cross-vertical, cross domains, then the network architecture has to be entirely different! Because in 5G, we have to think of entire thing from an end-to-end perspective, there are several elements that need to be ready before a full-fledged commercial deployment of 5G can be realised. For India, now is the time for us to prepare. And the good thing is that some of the work has already started - identification of the spectrum been done and made available, say like those in sub-6 GHz.
But we also need to identify new spectrum, the above 6 GHz – identifying, harmonizing it along with the global spectrum strategy and then making it ready for WRC-19. Further, we always advocate that robust backhaul network is must for 5G adoption. Otherwise, we will be ready technology-wise and spectrum-wise, but if our backhaul is not flexible and sufficiently available, that could be a bottleneck for 5G adoption.
ROW rules were floated in last year, but ground reality is that still the states are not ready to accept that. So we are still at the same state of affairs where we were earlier. While standardization is one, the other point is making the E-band, V-band available so that at least we can use that for the backhaul.
Which are possible services and use cases of 5G?
Radhey: There are three main use cases of 5G. One is the enhanced MBB and then second is massive machine type communication. And then the third one is critical machine type communication or we also call it ultra reliable and low density communication. And we are working in all of these domains. That is from the perspective of what services will 5G address. Then from a network technology perspective we have completed many trials involving massive MIMO, dual connectivity between like C-band and millimeter wave band. Mobility in high band.
One of the key use cases of 5G is Internet of Things. 3GPP has standardized narrowband IOT , this technology will basically be the first set of standardized 3GPP technology to drive the IoT, which we call as “Massive IoT.” Almost 30 networks are getting commercialized on narrowband IoT globally this year, and we think in India also this year we will see narrowband IoT commercial services.
It will also make a solid ground for 5G because 5G is also about long tail of services. So we are preparing the network not only from the perspective of backhaul, or just spectrum, but also we need to prepare from the perspective of services as well. And that is what we need to do with respect to the 4.5G technologies like narrowband IoT.
Chandan: Core part of the network can be cloudified to make it open network wherein different applications can run. All these things will help to prepare the industry for 5G adoption.
Can you please specific some of these IoT services that will run on 5G?
Radhey: We are talking about millions of sensors that could attach to devices that could be located half meter below the ground or three walls behind in places where it is hard to reach right now with traditional network. Secondly, these devices would be millions in number, so we want to make them totally maintenance free.
Further, we want the devices to be supported with very low power consumption. Narrowband IoT is a technology which is designed for these kind of applications, and key use cases could be smart parking, smart metering, water meter, gas meter, electric meter, or even tracking like kids or path tracking, old age nursing, these could be some of the very good use cases of narrowband IoT.
Is Huawei working with any telco for the implementation of narrow-band IoT?
Radhey: We have started our initial engagement in India. Globally, we have already been engaging and we have already commercialized deployments.
Which are steps required to make networks in India 5G ready?
Chandan: Backhaul needs to be strengthened and networks need to be digitized. End-to-end digitization is must, which we call it cloudification. Second is identifying use cases like eMBB and machine type communication.
Network cloudification, operations cloudification and service cloudification, all three aspects need to be addressed. Then only the full-fledged utilization or full-fledged deployment of 5G will happen.
SDN and NFV, coupled with above end-to-end orchestration will help telcos to modernize networks. With this, telcos can achieve network slicing piece, and then operator can sell network as a service. For instance, the can have one network as a service for IoT application.
Radhey: Telcos can build a network and you can sell network as a service to many, many different vertical players. They don’t need to manage the network.
Are telcos aggressively deploying SDN and NFV technology?
Chandan: All the new RFPs or whenever telcos are doing procurement, they are asking it should be NFV and SDN-ready because they know it that they will require it in the near future. The core network piece however is almost ready for NFV.
Telcos are now competing with OTT players, and if their core network is not digitized, time to marketing will be very long for them. If they have to rollout new service and if it was a traditional network, rolling out a new service can become a big challenge for them. If it is cloud-based, then they can outperform OTT players and they can compete very well with them.
SDN adoption is being looked at as pieces of the network.
Radhey: There is already a legacy infrastructure, and the new infrastructure needs to coexist with the legacy infrastructure.
What are your thoughts on spectrum bands for 5G technology?
Radhey: Spectrum bands like 1800 and 900 Mhz can also be used for 5G. Even 700 Mhz can be used for it. 5G is targeting all spectrum access. We have the millimetre wave band, the C band type of spectrum, which is above 3 GHz and then you have sub-3 GHz band. And every band will have a different role in the networks.
Millimetre wave band will be used for hotspot capacity. It will be used for complementing technology to FTTx. It will also be used for cell backhauling of 5G nodes. Then comes the C band - 3.5 GHz band from an India context—which will be the capacity layer because in 5G if you want to give very good user experience, you need big chunk of spectrum.
And in low band, you don’t have big chunk of spectrum available. So, in C band, we think that this will be the main capacity layer of 5G. It will drive enhanced mobile broadband and then broadband IoT, like lot of video surveillance and other use cases, and then comes the low band. Low band will be the main coverage layer and then there are certain use cases like autonomous driving.
Chandan: All chunk of the spectrum will be used for 5G, because the use cases are different.
Radhey: But initially, we see from a global market perspective that C band and millimetre wave, they are getting more traction because there is a ready business case. Mobile broadband or fixed wireless access are some use cases.
When it comes to 5G, so what sort of discussions you are driving with Indian telecom operators?
Chandan: We think that 5G adoption will be done in phased manner.
Radhey: There are two things that we are doing. One is we are guiding operators to evolve their 4G and second is, of course, prepare for 5G. Because 4G and 4G evolution is what is getting them revenue today and for future they need to prepare for 5G. We have been doing some technology and solution workshop with them to guide them how to evolve their network and prepare for 5G.
How soon you can expect first lab trials and field trials happening and secondly, commercial deployment?
Radhey: As far as trials are concerned, we believe that next year we can see some trials and, of course, from a commercial realization perspective I think there are certain regulatory aspects that need to be dealt with.
Chandan: And about the roadmap by 3GPP on standardization wherein 15 will be released by early next year and then 16 by 2019. We are very much in line with that roadmap and I agree with Radhey, once we have kind of agreement with the stakeholders to do some trials in India, I think maybe next year we can see some trials happening.
Radhey: When I say trial, I am talking about standard 5G trial, not pre-standard. Pre-standard can happen today. We can take advantage of that global ecosystem and therefore when we start to deploy 5G, we can be at a best position to take advantage.
Chandan: Once we have globally harmonized spectrum and being identified India also, definitely it will be an advantage for the economies of scale, roaming from one country to another country. If we adopt that and I think regulatory and government, they are working on that.
Radhey: And this will also help us to get a good device price points in near-term because to some extent, device is game of volume, so if you go with a globally harmonized band that means you can easily reach economies of scale in terms of device price points.
So what sort of market position you expect for Huawei in the 5G scenario?
Chandan: Huawei is leading on 5G and when we talk about cross industry collaboration, we will see in many of these forums Huawei is the leading position, and we are working very closely with the stakeholders towards a standardization. Huawei is putting lot of investment on 5G, and is playing a big role.
Radhey: I just want to specifically add few aspects like Polar Code is one coding scheme, polar code and the F-OFDM is one of the key technology inside 5G Air interface. So, these are like Huawei proposals which are already approved and accepted in 3GPP.
What sort of talks Huawei is having with the Indian telecom operators currently on the networks’ front?
Radhey: Massive MIMO is one technology which we are discussing. It is going to be able to address very huge capacity requirement. We are already seeing that data consumption in India is going up very fast. Massive MIMO is one technology for the same which can basically improve the spectrum utilization efficiency by multiple folds and service very big capacity requirement in super hotspot type of locations. We are discussing narrowband IoT to address some of these vertical industries and basically prepare and create alternate revenue stream for operator and this will also be a kind of ground for developing the more 5G service to start with. These are some of the key technologies and over and above that I think video is one.
https://telecom.economictimes.india...-in-line-with-global-timeline-huawei/59643160
In an interaction with ET’s Danish Khan, Huawei’s senior solutions director, Radhey Shyam Sarda, and director of integrated solutions and marketing, Chandan Kumar, discuss the current Indian telecom landscape and 5G technology, along with possible uses cases. Edited excerpts
How Huawei is driving 5G talks in India?
Radhey: In India, 4G has grown at a very fast pace and it will continue to do so in near future. 4G is evolving to what we call as LTE-A, and it is also introducing newer technologies like narrowband IoT. Some of the services, which 5G is going to bring, 4.5G or LTE-A is introducing them to the market. 5G will basically bring several diversified services with varying requirement, and the key point is that this will all be supported in the same network.
We think that in India, 5G will happen in line with the global timeline and recently, we heard about C-band spectrum being talked about as a band for 5G. Talks have already been started and we think that it may be a good time to even look at other spectrum bands such as millimetre wave band.
We have to align ourselves with the global ecosystem. The early adopters of 5G are using specific spectrum bands. We need to also align ourselves with those spectrum bands so that we can take advantage of global ecosystem and bring 5G early to the market.
Chandan Kumar, Huawei
Chandan: Moving from 4G to 5G, it is a revolutionary step, wherein the application cases in 5G will be usage of technology in verticals; in cross-industry, cross-domain networks. The implementation of 5G will require engagement from different stakeholders who were earlier not a part of this eco-system.
When we are making a technology, which can address the needs of new stakeholders from cross-industry, cross-vertical, cross domains, then the network architecture has to be entirely different! Because in 5G, we have to think of entire thing from an end-to-end perspective, there are several elements that need to be ready before a full-fledged commercial deployment of 5G can be realised. For India, now is the time for us to prepare. And the good thing is that some of the work has already started - identification of the spectrum been done and made available, say like those in sub-6 GHz.
But we also need to identify new spectrum, the above 6 GHz – identifying, harmonizing it along with the global spectrum strategy and then making it ready for WRC-19. Further, we always advocate that robust backhaul network is must for 5G adoption. Otherwise, we will be ready technology-wise and spectrum-wise, but if our backhaul is not flexible and sufficiently available, that could be a bottleneck for 5G adoption.
ROW rules were floated in last year, but ground reality is that still the states are not ready to accept that. So we are still at the same state of affairs where we were earlier. While standardization is one, the other point is making the E-band, V-band available so that at least we can use that for the backhaul.
Which are possible services and use cases of 5G?
Radhey: There are three main use cases of 5G. One is the enhanced MBB and then second is massive machine type communication. And then the third one is critical machine type communication or we also call it ultra reliable and low density communication. And we are working in all of these domains. That is from the perspective of what services will 5G address. Then from a network technology perspective we have completed many trials involving massive MIMO, dual connectivity between like C-band and millimeter wave band. Mobility in high band.
One of the key use cases of 5G is Internet of Things. 3GPP has standardized narrowband IOT , this technology will basically be the first set of standardized 3GPP technology to drive the IoT, which we call as “Massive IoT.” Almost 30 networks are getting commercialized on narrowband IoT globally this year, and we think in India also this year we will see narrowband IoT commercial services.
It will also make a solid ground for 5G because 5G is also about long tail of services. So we are preparing the network not only from the perspective of backhaul, or just spectrum, but also we need to prepare from the perspective of services as well. And that is what we need to do with respect to the 4.5G technologies like narrowband IoT.
Chandan: Core part of the network can be cloudified to make it open network wherein different applications can run. All these things will help to prepare the industry for 5G adoption.
Can you please specific some of these IoT services that will run on 5G?
Radhey: We are talking about millions of sensors that could attach to devices that could be located half meter below the ground or three walls behind in places where it is hard to reach right now with traditional network. Secondly, these devices would be millions in number, so we want to make them totally maintenance free.
Further, we want the devices to be supported with very low power consumption. Narrowband IoT is a technology which is designed for these kind of applications, and key use cases could be smart parking, smart metering, water meter, gas meter, electric meter, or even tracking like kids or path tracking, old age nursing, these could be some of the very good use cases of narrowband IoT.
Is Huawei working with any telco for the implementation of narrow-band IoT?
Radhey: We have started our initial engagement in India. Globally, we have already been engaging and we have already commercialized deployments.
Which are steps required to make networks in India 5G ready?
Chandan: Backhaul needs to be strengthened and networks need to be digitized. End-to-end digitization is must, which we call it cloudification. Second is identifying use cases like eMBB and machine type communication.
Network cloudification, operations cloudification and service cloudification, all three aspects need to be addressed. Then only the full-fledged utilization or full-fledged deployment of 5G will happen.
SDN and NFV, coupled with above end-to-end orchestration will help telcos to modernize networks. With this, telcos can achieve network slicing piece, and then operator can sell network as a service. For instance, the can have one network as a service for IoT application.
Radhey: Telcos can build a network and you can sell network as a service to many, many different vertical players. They don’t need to manage the network.
Are telcos aggressively deploying SDN and NFV technology?
Chandan: All the new RFPs or whenever telcos are doing procurement, they are asking it should be NFV and SDN-ready because they know it that they will require it in the near future. The core network piece however is almost ready for NFV.
Telcos are now competing with OTT players, and if their core network is not digitized, time to marketing will be very long for them. If they have to rollout new service and if it was a traditional network, rolling out a new service can become a big challenge for them. If it is cloud-based, then they can outperform OTT players and they can compete very well with them.
SDN adoption is being looked at as pieces of the network.
Radhey: There is already a legacy infrastructure, and the new infrastructure needs to coexist with the legacy infrastructure.
What are your thoughts on spectrum bands for 5G technology?
Radhey: Spectrum bands like 1800 and 900 Mhz can also be used for 5G. Even 700 Mhz can be used for it. 5G is targeting all spectrum access. We have the millimetre wave band, the C band type of spectrum, which is above 3 GHz and then you have sub-3 GHz band. And every band will have a different role in the networks.
Millimetre wave band will be used for hotspot capacity. It will be used for complementing technology to FTTx. It will also be used for cell backhauling of 5G nodes. Then comes the C band - 3.5 GHz band from an India context—which will be the capacity layer because in 5G if you want to give very good user experience, you need big chunk of spectrum.
And in low band, you don’t have big chunk of spectrum available. So, in C band, we think that this will be the main capacity layer of 5G. It will drive enhanced mobile broadband and then broadband IoT, like lot of video surveillance and other use cases, and then comes the low band. Low band will be the main coverage layer and then there are certain use cases like autonomous driving.
Chandan: All chunk of the spectrum will be used for 5G, because the use cases are different.
Radhey: But initially, we see from a global market perspective that C band and millimetre wave, they are getting more traction because there is a ready business case. Mobile broadband or fixed wireless access are some use cases.
When it comes to 5G, so what sort of discussions you are driving with Indian telecom operators?
Chandan: We think that 5G adoption will be done in phased manner.
Radhey: There are two things that we are doing. One is we are guiding operators to evolve their 4G and second is, of course, prepare for 5G. Because 4G and 4G evolution is what is getting them revenue today and for future they need to prepare for 5G. We have been doing some technology and solution workshop with them to guide them how to evolve their network and prepare for 5G.
How soon you can expect first lab trials and field trials happening and secondly, commercial deployment?
Radhey: As far as trials are concerned, we believe that next year we can see some trials and, of course, from a commercial realization perspective I think there are certain regulatory aspects that need to be dealt with.
Chandan: And about the roadmap by 3GPP on standardization wherein 15 will be released by early next year and then 16 by 2019. We are very much in line with that roadmap and I agree with Radhey, once we have kind of agreement with the stakeholders to do some trials in India, I think maybe next year we can see some trials happening.
Radhey: When I say trial, I am talking about standard 5G trial, not pre-standard. Pre-standard can happen today. We can take advantage of that global ecosystem and therefore when we start to deploy 5G, we can be at a best position to take advantage.
Chandan: Once we have globally harmonized spectrum and being identified India also, definitely it will be an advantage for the economies of scale, roaming from one country to another country. If we adopt that and I think regulatory and government, they are working on that.
Radhey: And this will also help us to get a good device price points in near-term because to some extent, device is game of volume, so if you go with a globally harmonized band that means you can easily reach economies of scale in terms of device price points.
So what sort of market position you expect for Huawei in the 5G scenario?
Chandan: Huawei is leading on 5G and when we talk about cross industry collaboration, we will see in many of these forums Huawei is the leading position, and we are working very closely with the stakeholders towards a standardization. Huawei is putting lot of investment on 5G, and is playing a big role.
Radhey: I just want to specifically add few aspects like Polar Code is one coding scheme, polar code and the F-OFDM is one of the key technology inside 5G Air interface. So, these are like Huawei proposals which are already approved and accepted in 3GPP.
What sort of talks Huawei is having with the Indian telecom operators currently on the networks’ front?
Radhey: Massive MIMO is one technology which we are discussing. It is going to be able to address very huge capacity requirement. We are already seeing that data consumption in India is going up very fast. Massive MIMO is one technology for the same which can basically improve the spectrum utilization efficiency by multiple folds and service very big capacity requirement in super hotspot type of locations. We are discussing narrowband IoT to address some of these vertical industries and basically prepare and create alternate revenue stream for operator and this will also be a kind of ground for developing the more 5G service to start with. These are some of the key technologies and over and above that I think video is one.
https://telecom.economictimes.india...-in-line-with-global-timeline-huawei/59643160
