For Qualcomm, which started in the mobile communications industry, 5G is undoubtedly a must-have after fully winning the opportunities for 3G and 4G development.
As for the arrival of true 5G smart phones, what new applications will be brought to the fore. Serge Willenegger, senior vice president of Qualcomm Incorporated and general manager of 4G/5G and Industrial Internet of Things, expressed his views on these issues.
Accelerating 5G commercialization, the fastest arrival at the end of the year
As early as September 2016, Qualcomm released the world's first 5G-enabled modem at the 4G/5G Summit, and named it the Xiaolong X50. Since then, Qualcomm has continued to improve and innovate the Xiaolong X50. 2017 In March of the year, Qualcomm announced that the 骁龙X50 achieves full-frequency coverage, and the multi-mode function of 2G/3G/4G/5G can be realized by a single chip.
In October 2017, Qualcomm announced at the 4G/5G Summit that year that it had achieved the world’s first 5G network data connection based on the Xiaolong X50 5G modem; at the Qualcomm artificial intelligence forum in May this year, Qualcomm also demonstrated Its first 5G smartphone reference design based on the Xiaolong X50.
'This solution can be integrated into simple modules through the most basic 5G components, simplifying terminal equipment design, reducing total cost of ownership and supporting faster commercial times, and helping original equipment manufacturers who want to make full use of 5G technology in a convenient way. Support them to quickly commercialize 5G in smartphones and major vertical industries. ' Serge Willenegger said when talking about this solution.
It is understood that there are already 20 mobile phone OEMs who have announced that they will use the Snapdragon X50 chipset to build 5G mobile phone terminals. In the recent 5G SA new air interface interoperability test, the terminal side products used are also using Snapdragon X50. Chipset. It can be said that the Xiaolong X50 is already an indispensable part of the 5G mobile phone.
As for the arrival time of 5G smart phones, Serge Willenegger believes: 'The landing of 5G terminals is only a matter of time. It is expected that 5G mobile phones with pure data will be put on the market first at the end of 2018. At the end of the first quarter of 2019, the first handsets with full 5G capabilities will be available. Will be released. '
The so-called pure data 5G smart phones and full-featured 5G smart phones are mainly different in terms of external dimensions and support functions. Pure data 5G smart phones can only provide data services, but not voice features. Full-featured 5G smart phones Supports all functions. It is also because of the difference in functionality that makes terminal manufacturers spend more time to develop, and the time to market will be slightly later.
Deepening cooperation with manufacturers on 5G
In addition, Qualcomm continues to deepen cooperation with other manufacturers, especially operators and terminal manufacturers.
In this year's MWCS2018 booth, Qualcomm added 5G new air interface network and terminal simulation experiments in Frankfurt, Germany and San Francisco, USA, and added 5G new air interface network and terminal simulation experiments in Tokyo, Japan. Qualcomm demonstrated in representative areas in North America, Europe, and Asia. In each region, 5G new air interface networks and terminal simulation experiments were conducted to verify the performance of 5G in different networks.
At the China Mobile Partner Conference held recently, Qualcomm and ZTE, China Mobile jointly announced that they have successfully realized the world's first 3GPP-based end-to-end 5G new air interface system interoperability, which is regarded as a milestone in the 5G era. .
Earlier, Qualcomm and Inseego subsidiary NovatelWireless, launched 5G new air interface millimeter wave technology based on 5G new air interface (5GNR) Release15 specification and OTA field test.
In addition, Qualcomm and vivo also developed a 5G millimeter wave antenna array for mobile phones, successfully breaking through the problem of restricting the popularity of 5G mobile terminals, and successfully miniaturizing the 5G radio frequency antenna. Although this announcement is technical, consumers may be very Difficult to perceive, but it marks the dawn of small devices that can be used for different types of 5G networks and can automatically switch to any available frequency.
'It can be said that in the current 5G industry chain, whether it is standards, chips or terminals have made good progress. This is mainly due to all aspects of cooperation. ' Serge Willenegger stressed.
5G will give mobile phone new meaning
Some people may ask what 5G ultra-low latency and ultra-high speed can bring to future terminal applications.
In Serge Willenegger's view, 5G does not necessarily mean a subversive killer application. This technology brings more trends. This trend has been seen in the 4G era. Some clues.
As everyone knows, the Internet of Everything can be mentioned by more and more manufacturers in this period from 4G to 5G. The Internet of Things is developing rapidly at this stage, all of which will benefit from the rapid transmission speed of the network. Increased and low delay.
'This trend has been reflected in industries such as automotive, retail, logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, etc. These industries have undergone some new changes under the influence of the Internet of Things. Although it is not a killer application, it is indeed fundamental. The change. ' Serge Willenegger stressed.
With the development of the Internet of Everything, equipment has higher and higher requirements for high transmission speed, low latency and high feasibility. Especially in the case of large-scale deployment, the system must have a breakthrough in capabilities.
This is one of the reasons for the rapid emergence of 5G.
However, Serge Willenegger also stressed that in the trend of the Internet of Everything, smart phones will become the core of the development of this platform, 5G will give mobile phones a new meaning.
First of all, the arrival of 5G means that users' demand for data traffic will increase. From the 3G to 4G era, the data used by users has increased by tens of times. This is especially the case in China. , also spawned a lot of new applications, developed a lot of new features. With the arrival of 5G, it means that users can even use data traffic without restrictions.
Secondly, data traffic will further reduce the cost of use with the arrival of 5G. From the 3G to 4G era, the data traffic used by users has increased, and the cost has decreased a lot. In the 5G era, this is still a trend.
Finally, Serge Willenegger believes that due to the high bandwidth and low latency that will result in new application scenarios, a new combination of computing power will emerge from the cloud to the terminal, and the emergence of these new approaches will change the existing application form. , For the user to bring a better experience.
The arrival of 5G may not bring killer applications, but neither operators nor chip makers have ever stopped exploring 5G application scenarios. From the current point of view, with the gradual emergence of 5G smart phones at the end of the year, more The potential remains to be discovered!