Huawei Unveils Vision for 5G Future at Global Forum in Dubai

Huawei inaugurated the 14th Global Mobile Broadband Forum in Dubai, UAE. During this event, Li Peng, the Corporate Senior Vice President and Carrier BG President at Huawei, took the stage as a keynote speaker. In his address, Li called upon global carriers and industry partners to step up to the plate, meeting the growing demands on networks and harnessing forthcoming trends.

Li urged, “Let’s commence today, constructing the networks of tomorrow to cater to future services and unlock the boundless potential of 5G for enduring success.”

In his discussion about fostering a positive 5G business cycle and embracing 5.5G (5G-A), Li asserted, “We are already on the right trajectory for 5G business triumph, and 5G-Advanced represents the logical next step in 5G’s evolution.”

He underscored that when examining history, transformative economic shifts consistently stemmed from innovations in general-purpose technologies. Li articulated, “We now find ourselves in the digital age, where the Internet propels the digital economy.”

Li continued, “5G constitutes a pivotal component of this new economic transformation, stimulating fresh advancements in general-purpose technologies. In the realm of digital industries, 5G is progressing rapidly, creating novel markets and opportunities.”

According to Li’s vision, future mobile networks must encompass six essential attributes: a 10 Gbps downlink, 1 Gbps uplink, deterministic networking, support for a hundred billion IoT connections, integrated sensing and communication, and native AI capabilities. To realize this vision, carriers and industry stakeholders must not only continually enhance their competencies across three fundamental usage scenarios – enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) – but also cultivate three new capabilities, including Uplink Centric Broadband Communication (UCBC) and Real-Time Broadband Communication (RTBC).

When addressing 5G-Advanced, the next phase of 5G technology, Li additionally emphasized the necessity for industry-wide collaboration in advancing device and application ecosystems, validating use case scenarios, and accelerating the widespread commercialization of FWA Square, Passive IoT, and RedCap. These collective endeavors are indispensable for capitalizing on five emerging trends that will shape an intelligent digital future.

1. Glasses-Free 3D: The glasses-free 3D industry ecosystem is rapidly maturing, with innovations in cloud rendering and real-time 3D virtual human technology elevating the immersive experience. As more devices, including mobile phones and TVs, adopt glasses-free 3D, data traffic is expected to surge tenfold compared to 2D video.
2. Self-Guided Vehicles: The year 2025 will see over 500 million smart vehicles on the road. High-bandwidth, low-latency networks will enable smart vehicles to seamlessly exchange information with people, other vehicles, roads, and the cloud in real-time. In assisted-driving scenarios, smart vehicles will consume over 300 gigabytes of data monthly for cloud-based model training and algorithm updates, with consumption increasing by a factor of 100 in self-driving scenarios.
3. Next-Gen Manufacturing: Breakthroughs in network slicing and edge computing have resulted in a hundredfold increase in 5G private networks for enterprise applications, with a market size exceeding US$10 billion. As production lines become more flexible and reliant on wireless networks, 5G networks are required to meet higher standards.

Huawei collaborated with a carrier and industry partners to establish the industry’s maiden 5G-Advanced flexible trial production line. In this context, 5G-Advanced facilitates high-concurrency and highly deterministic network connections, streamlining the connection of computing power between the cloud and network edge.

4. Generalized Cellular IoT: The global mobile IoT connections exceed three billion, with 5G now linking more devices than people. In the near future, 5G will support a broader spectrum of IoT technologies, such as medium-speed RedCap and Passive IoT. This will offer diverse options for different IoT scenarios, optimizing data flow, information exchange, and computational resources. For example, in the home appliance manufacturing sector, Passive IoT enhances visibility throughout the distribution and production chain, leading to a 30% productivity boost during verification trials.
5. Guaranteed Intelligent Computing Everywhere: The proliferation of new AI developments, like foundation models, is expected to lead to a 100-fold surge in demand for AI computing power by 2025. To unleash the full potential of AI computing, advanced network capabilities are imperative. These networks will necessitate increased bandwidth and reduced latency to empower truly intelligent connectivity. Moreover, as traffic models evolve, future networks will need to become more autonomous and intelligent to deliver a dependable user experience.