October 15, 2021

GTI calls for 2.3GHz Band Industry development to speed up

BEIJING, Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Ever since 4G, 2.3 GHz has been regarded as a golden frequency by global operators. Indeed, 2.3 GHz provides both capacity and coverage, which 5G makes full use of to significantly extend the performance of legacy 4G. In particular, the large channel bandwidth of 2.3 GHz is perfectly aligned to accommodate 5G capacity.

Despite pressure under the global health crisis, the industry behind 2.3 GHz has shown no signs of slowing down over the past year. In fact, it has even accelerated with the launch of several new smartphones supporting 2.3 GHz. With over 70 4G/5G commercial references on 2.3 GHz, it has been forecast that more operators and terminal vendors will take up 2.3 GHz in the near future.

To promote the further development of the 2.3 GHz industry, GTI leads industry partners such as operators and terminal vendors to call for:

1. Accelerate the allocation of TDD 2.3GHz spectrum (2300-2400 MHz) with TDD continuous large bandwidth up to 100 MHz, reduce the deployment cost per bit, and improve user experience across generations.

2. Remove possible barriers of the use of 2.3GHz. The industry is urged to work together to solve the problem of network coexistence and improve spectrum availability.

3. Promote the devices industry chain to make mandatory the support of NR 2.3GHz frequency in 2022, and better support key features such as EN-DC, carrier aggregation, SUL, 1T4R/2T4R SRS Antenna Switching and 80~100 MHz channel bandwidth.

4. Promote efficiently use of TDD 2.3GHz spectrum and accelerate commercial launch by global operators.

Video: https://v.qq.com/x/page/g3301egqnrw.html

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October 15, 2021

Huawei’s Yang Chaobin: Innovation for 5Gigaverse Society

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — During the 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) 2021, Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei Wireless Solution, delivered a keynote speech titled “Innovation for 5Gigaverse Society”.

“5G is developing rapidly worldwide, with more than 170 networks built and nearly 500 million users developed within two years. As 5G commercial deployment enters a new phase, users need more continuous experience, and industry digitalization poses new requirements on 5G capabilities. Therefore, we believe that the next step is to evolve 5G from hotspot to all-scenario continuous coverage, from Gbps to 5Gigaverse, and from pilot industry to all-industry digitalization, to build a ubiquitous gigabit network and a 5Gigaverse society,” said Mr. Yang.

Changes in user behavior and industry digitization pose higher requirements on 5G. According to the viewing statistics during the sport events held in Tokyo this year, the number of views through mobile devices increased by five times compared with 2012, while the amount of TV watching dropped by 50%. In terms of FWA, the number of users exceeds that of wired users. In addition, the 5G DOU has increased by three times compared with that of 4G as video services grow. Therefore, it is expected that by 2030, mobile networks will carry more traffic than wired networks and become the main bearer of internet traffic. In toB exploration, progress has been made in industry digitalization. 5G has enabled more than 10,000 scenarios in more than 20 industries worldwide. In the future, 5G capabilities will continue to evolve to incorporate fragmented connections in various industries, creating an IoT space with hundreds of billions of connections.

“So, a macro-pole-indoor 3D networking mode needs to be adopted to maximize the value of macro sites by deploying pole sites and indoor products on demand. In this way, we’ll be able to build 5G networks with continuous coverage to enable toB and toC and embrace a 5Ggaverse society,” said Mr. Yang.

Massive MIMO and ultra-wideband maximize macro coverage and capacity. Macro sites account for up to 45% of operators’ investment in network construction. Therefore, how to maximize macro capacity and coverage becomes a top concern. Two years of commercial 5G deployment has proved that the Massive MIMO and ultra-wideband technologies can improve user experience by 10 times and have become the choice of most operators around the world. “Different spectrum requires different strategies customized based on their characteristics. The TDD spectrum featuring high bandwidth and large capacity has weaker coverage compared with low frequency bands and requires coverage improvement, while FDD featuring wide coverage and fragmented spectrum requires capacity improvement. Therefore, we launched a full range of 5G base station products this year to help operators meet these requirements,” said Mr. Yang.

“It has become an industry consensus that Massive MIMO is the right choice for deployment with continuous large-bandwidth TDD bands. For markets with discrete spectrum, Huawei launched Massive MIMO AAU with 400 MHz bandwidth to enable simplified deployment. For markets with limited antenna spaces, Huawei offers BladeAAU that supports simplified single-antenna deployment through the integration of sub-3 GHz and Massive MIMO.” Huawei also released the new 64TRX MetaAAU with improved performance and energy saving.

“Our brand-new MetaAAU introduces the extreme-large antenna array (ELAA) technology and the innovative AHR Turbo solution, marking a new breakthrough in Massive MIMO coverage and energy efficiency. Compared with the traditional AAUs with 192 antenna elements, ELAA features 384 antenna elements and is integrated with the ultra-light integrated array and SDIF technologies to improve both coverage and integration. AHR Turbo, an adaptive high-resolution beamforming algorithm, enables the MetaAAU to be precise, dynamic, and targeted, greatly improving user experience and cell capacity. By now, this product has been put into commercial use in four cities by the three tier-1 operators in China. MetaAAU provides 3 dB better coverage and 30% better user experience compared with 64T, and 6 dB better coverage and 60% better user experience compared with 32T. It allows base stations to achieve the same level of cell edge coverage with a lower transmit power, reducing energy consumption by about 30% compared with traditional AAUs.”

For markets where new TDD bands are not licensed yet, the legacy FDD spectrum can be used to modernize installed bases using the Massive MIMO and ultra-wideband technologies, reducing deployment costs and improving 4G and 5G experience and capacity.

Huawei’s high-power, ultra-wideband 4T4R RRU, unique in the industry, supports three bands (700 MHz, 800 MHz, and 900 MHz; 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 2.6 GHz/1.4 GHz) in one box, simplifying multi-band network deployment. It enables full-band and all-RAT dynamic power sharing, improving user experience by 30% and reducing power consumption by 30%. For modernization of legacy spectrum, Huawei launched ultra-high-power, ultra-wideband 8T8R RRU, which is also unique in the industry. This product supports 1.8 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands in one box. It works with the first Hertz platform-based 8T8R native antenna, greatly improving coverage and capacity.

For high-capacity scenarios with limited antenna spaces, Huawei will launch FDD BladeAAU which packs Massive MIMO and the sub-3 GHz full-band antenna in one box this year, enabling simplified deployment of sub-3 GHz sites. The FDD BladeAAU and MetaAAU can be used together to further empower simplified deployment of all frequency bands, enabling Massive MIMO to provide coverage that can match 900 MHz 2T2R. This allows operators to achieve a wide, seamless gigabit experience.

Pole sites extend macro coverage with on-demand simplified deployment for coverage hole fill-up and at hotspots. This is important for mobile networks in streets and residential areas where site acquisition is challenging, as they offer a simple approach to deploy macro sites by leveraging lamp poles and walls. The pole sites must support both TDD and FDD bands to cover both 4G and 5G users. In 2020, Huawei launched a series of simplified solutions, TDD and FDD dual-band EasyMacro 3.0 and BookRRU 3.0, to help operators quickly fill up 5G coverage holes. This year, Huawei released a new pole site product EasyBlink 2.0 to further simplify pole site deployment. The industry’s smallest and lightest AAU product – just 20 L and 10 kg – EasyBlink 2.0 supports 32T32R and uses optimized antenna arrays, lending itself to conveniently improving coverage or capacity in areas such as streets where coverage holes often occur or capacity is limited due to challenging macro deployment.

Huawei provides the industry’s only distributed Massive MIMO solution for 5G indoor ubiquitous Gbps experience. In indoor areas, simplified deployment is crucial for operators to implement multi-RAT and multi-band deployment that can ensure optimal user experience. Huawei’s LampSite solution supports TDD and FDD bands of multiple radio access technologies in one box and supports indoor distributed Massive MIMO. These features enable it to improve network capacity fourfold compared with 4T4R, ensuring indoor ubiquitous Gbps experience. It is the best suited to provide coverage in major indoor areas, such as airports, railway stations, and shopping malls.

Huawei provides a simplified 5GtoB solution for different campus scenarios. In factories and campuses, custom coverage is often required on the macro networks that are used to ensure continuous coverage. LampSite and EasyMacro provide an ideal choice for operators to quickly implement 5G coverage in indoor and outdoor campus areas, respectively. The SUL solution further enables operators to provide Gigabit uplink data speed. Huawei’s 5GtoB solutions also enables operators to conveniently meet the differentiated requirements of different industries in uplink ultra-wideband, high-precision positioning, low latency, and high reliability.

Intelligent engine drives networks to autonomous driving. In this decade, multi-band and multi-standard co-existence will be a major trend. Operators must coordinate macro, pole, and indoor 3D network O&M, meet differentiated experience of toB, toC, and toH users, and maximize network performance with minimized power consumption. This further highlights the urgency of developing intelligent wireless networks. With this in mind, Huawei has launched its intelligent engine, which covers PowerStar 2.0, Capacity Turbo, WTTx Suite, and 5GtoB Suite to promote autonomous driving networks. PowerStar 2.0 introduces intelligence to base stations. It analyzes factors such as coverage, load, and service type and generates energy saving policies to help reduce network energy consumption by 25% while maintaining premium performance. Capacity Turbo implements 3D coordination among macro, pole, and indoor networks through intelligent analysis and decision-making, such as beam measurement, traffic map, and user rate, achieving optimal experience in all scenarios on all frequency bands. As a result, user experience can be improved by more than 30%. The 5G WTTx Suite provides accurate rate evaluation based on user locations and identification and optimization of poor-performing CPEs. It enables operators to determine where services can be provisioned and what user experience should be provided while reducing poor-performing CPEs by 30%. The 5GtoB Suite provides intelligent and precise planning and proactive device/network O&M functions to help enterprises plan toB networks and manage toB QoS. With the 5GtoB Suite, the network planning time for a factory is reduced from more than 40 hours to about 8 hours. In addition, the 5GtoB Suite can be used to quickly locate and rectify faults within 15 minutes.

“Innovation will never stop. The next decade will be a decade of 5G. 5G will continue to evolve and innovate toward 5.5G. We hope to work with global partners to continuously innovate based on user experience and industry requirements to take user experience to new heights while digitally transforming industries.”

The 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum offers an opportunity for the mobile and adjacent vertical ecosystems to reconnect, rebuild, and reimagine a fully connected, intelligent world. Topics currently under discussion with global partners range from maximizing the potential of 5G, including industry use cases and applications, to advancing the mobile future.

For more information, please visit: https://www.huawei.com/en/events/mbbf2021.

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October 15, 2021

Huawei’s Ma Hongbo: 5Go S.M.A.R.T., Ushering Wireless Networks into the Intelligent and Autonomous Era

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Ma Hongbo, President of Huawei Wireless SingleOSS Product Line, delivered a keynote titled “5Go S.M.A.R.T., Ushering Wireless Networks into the Intelligent and Autonomous Era ” at the 4th Wireless Autonomous Driving Network Industry Forum. The forum was held within the framework of the 12th Global Mobile Broadband Forum. In his speech, Mr. Ma highlighted the importance of network autonomy for 5G operators, predicting five key areas of evolution for wireless networks: Simplified, Maximizing, Agile, Robust, and Thinking (5Go S.M.A.R.T.). These changes will bring about autonomous driving networks featuring automated O&M, ultimate performance, and low carbon footprint.

Figure: Five trends for wireless autonomous driving networks

Operators Focus on Autonomous Driving Networks

Over the past decade, wireless network evolution has brought new opportunities along with increased network OPEX and O&M complexity. With 5G, the mobile communications industry is promoting the concept of autonomous driving networks by integrating wireless networks with intelligence.

During the keynote, Mr. Ma explained that operators are gradually and hierarchically implementing autonomous driving networks as their core strategy. In fact, according to research by TMF Autonomous Networks in 2021, over 80% of the 42 independently interviewed operators believe that they will deploy a large-scale fully autonomous driving network in the next decade.

5Go S.M.A.R.T.: Five Trends for Wireless Autonomous Driving Networks

Wireless autonomous driving networks will integrate both network and site intelligence, developing independent intelligence processes and gradually evolving toward intelligent autonomy.

Trend 1 Go Simplified: Network construction will become more intelligent and simplified throughout its lifecycle. Intelligence will be introduced to sites, facilitating intelligent sensing and simplified site configuration, sort of like adding “eyes” and a “brain”. The intelligence of networks and base stations will collaborate to adapt to a variety of contexts, resulting in network self-configuration and intelligent auxiliary site acceptance. Ultimately, the entire lifecycle of network construction will be simplified.

Trend 2 Go Maximizing: Vertical collaboration will maximize network potential. Intelligence will also be introduced to the air interface, along with using technologies, such as channel graph and scheduling dictionary, for more flexible resource scheduling and spectrum decoupling, maximizing the single-site performance. The network will use 3D beam scheduling and intelligent parameter optimization to maximize performance on all frequency bands. Along with improved performance and experience, the network will balance and maximize network energy efficiency using energy-saving technologies at the site, device, and network layers.

Trend 3 Go Agile: The entire process of 5G services will become more agile. Today, every industry requires better network construction and maintenance than in the past. As such, intelligence will be introduced to the planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization phases of toB networks. This will result in automatic service intent translation, precise intelligent network planning, and proactive service assurance, making 5GtoB service rollout more agile.

Trend 4 Go Robust: 5G networks will become more reliable. Intelligence capabilities, such as fault feature self-learning and intelligent time sequence analysis, will be introduced to implement accurate fault identification and intelligent root cause analysis. This will transform troubleshooting from manual to automatic, implement fault prediction and prevention, transition from passive response to proactive maintenance, enhance network robustness, and ultimately build more reliable 5G networks.

Trend 5 Go Thinking: 5G networks will be able to “think”. Together, site and network intelligence will become the foundation for wireless autonomous driving networks. Base stations will gradually become intelligent, creating digital twins. They will also possess device-pipe federated learning capability to add intelligence to each terminal. The powerful computing capability of the wireless intelligent engine will be able to self-learn and self-evolve using massive network data along with algorithms and models. Finally, wireless networks will essentially be able to think.

Ma Hongbo noted, “Currently, autonomous driving networks in the mobile communications field are at the levels between L2 and L3. To achieve fully autonomous driving networks requires the joint efforts of all industry stakeholders in terms of level criteria, evaluation systems, and application collaboration. Huawei will continue to work with operators and industry partners to innovate S.M.A.R.T. and enable autonomous networks.”

For more information, please visit: https://www.huawei.com/en/events/mbbf2021

About Huawei
Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have more than 197,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.
Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go. For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on:
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October 15, 2021

In NE Nigeria, Cuts to Food Rations Loom as UN Agency Runs Out of Cash

The World Food Program warns it will be forced to cut food rations for half-a-million people suffering from acute hunger in northeast Nigeria unless it receives urgently needed funding.

Millions of people in Nigeria’s crisis-ridden Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states are suffering from years of conflict and insecurity and the socio-economic fallout from COVID-19.

The WFP says 4.4 million people are facing acute hunger. It warns it will have to start cutting food rations for half-a-million men, women, and children in a matter of weeks unless it gets an immediate infusion of $55 million.

WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says hunger is peaking now as the country emerges from the so-called lean season. That is the period between June and August when food stocks are at their lowest.

He says attacks by armed groups are heightening insecurity in the region and discouraging people from working their land.

“The states in the north are largely agrarian in nature. They rely on agriculture to survive and when you have insecurity, they are unable to farm. They are unable to rear livestock. And this is sort of fueling the food insecurity situation,” he said.

Phiri siaid the WFP is providing food assistance to 1.9 million Nigerians. He said 800,000 of them are facing food emergency levels that are just one step from famine.

“Although famine has not been confirmed, the suffering of the people is quite immense. We are concerned as the World Food Program as over one million children are malnourished in the northeast and…a lot of people have been displaced. These are people who have been displaced multiple times. So, people are really, really knocking on the door of starvation,” Phiri said.

To sustain its humanitarian lifesaving operations in northeast Nigeria until March, the WFP urgently requires $197 million. As of now, WFP officials say they only have received $6 million.

Source: Voice of America

October 15, 2021

UN Recap: October 10-15, 2021

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

* U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lays out $3.12 billion regular budget for 2022 for world body

* U.N.: 400,000 Yemeni children at imminent risk from malnutrition

New military offensive in Ethiopia

The situation in northern Ethiopia remains at the top of the U.N. agenda, as Tigrayan fighters accuse the federal government of launching a new military offensive using airstrikes, drones and heavy artillery against them. Kenya is presiding over the U.N. Security Council this month, where the situation was last discussed on October 6. On Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta chaired a debate about peacebuilding and was asked about Tigray at a press encounter. See his response here:

US to return to U.N. Human Rights Council

After a decades-long on/off relationship with the controversial Geneva-based council, the Biden administration decided to run for a seat, after the Trump administration withdrew in June 2018. Read about the results of Thursday’s election and what impact the U.S. presence might have:

UN chief urges countries not to let Afghanistan’s economy collapse

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that Afghanistan faces a “make-or-break moment” and that without international support its economy could collapse. Speaking ahead of the G-20 special summit on Afghanistan, he appealed for an urgent injection of cash into the economy:

Meanwhile, humanitarians race against time to get enough supplies in place for millions of vulnerable Afghans before winter sets in:

News in brief

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres laid out the U.N.’s 2022 annual budget: $3.12 billion, a net reduction of 2.8% over the 2021 budget. That figure doesn’t include peacekeeping missions, which will run around $6.4 billion for 2021-22. Each country’s annual dues are calculated based on their national income and population size. … U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said 20 million people, or two-thirds of Yemen’s population, need humanitarian assistance. Five million people are just a step away from famine and about 400,000 children are at imminent risk of death from malnutrition.

Some good news

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the global number of weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths has been on the decline since late August. “Over 2.8 million new cases and over 46,000 new deaths were reported during the week of 4 to 10 October 2021, representing a 7% and 10% decrease respectively, as compared to the previous week,” WHO said.

Quote of note

“Kabul looked like a graveyard of people who were alive. People who were hopeless, disappointed, powerless.”

— Fawzia Koofi, first woman deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament, to the U.N. Security Council of the days after the Taliban’s August 15 takeover

What we are watching next week

Dictators on notice: Human rights in Belarus, DPRK, Iran, Myanmar and Syria come under the microscope in the U.N. General Assembly’s third committee.

Did you know?

U.N. headquarters spans several blocks in New York City’s Turtle Bay neighborhood. The area, once settled by Dutch farmers, got its name from a small cove on the East River, which the world body looks out on.

Source: Voice of America

October 15, 2021

US Cautious Over Claims Key IS African Leader Is Dead

Claims from Nigeria that the leader of one of the fastest-growing Islamic State terror group affiliates is dead are being met with extreme caution in the United States.

Officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department said Friday they were aware of accounts that Islamic State West Africa Province leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi had been killed, but some said it was too early to say anything for sure.

“We are aware of the reports but note that unconfirmed reports in the past have proven unfounded,” one senior administration official told VOA on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.

“That said, ISIS-West Africa remains a threat to peace and stability in the region,” the official added, using another acronym for the terror group.

Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, General Lucky Irabor, first announced the death of al-Barnawi at a news conference in Lagos on Thursday.”

I can authoritatively confirm to you that Abu Musab is dead,” Irabor said, offering no other details.

Some media outlets suggested al-Barnawi had been killed in clashes with rival factions, but such claims could not be independently verified.

Al-Barnawi is the son of Mohammed Yusuf, who founded the rival terror group, Boko Haram. In 2016, when most of Boko Haram split with Islamic State, al-Barnawi was appointed the leader of the faction that remained loyal.

The U.S. named al-Barnawi a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2018, citing the risk he posed to U.S. national security.

For years, al-Barnawi’s IS West Africa had been battling Boko Haram for supremacy in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region. But al-Barnawi’s group seemed to finally gain the upper hand in May when its forces surrounded Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau following a battle in the Sambisa Forest.

According to accounts posted online by IS and later confirmed by Nigerian and U.S. officials, Shekau, who, like al-Barnawi, was reported dead multiple times, eventually blew himself up rather than be taken alive.

According to U.S. military officials, Shekau’s death has since led to a rapid expansion for IS West Africa.

“ISWA (IS West Africa) has pretty much consolidated the vast majority of Boko Haram fighters,” one official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

As a result, IS West Africa’s ranks have grown substantially, from about 2,500-3,000 fighters to about 5,000 fighters.

Intelligence from United Nations member states has also warned of IS West Africa’s growing ambitions.

A report by a U.N. sanctions monitoring team in July said the group was “expected to seek to extend its area of operations towards Maiduguri, Nigeria.”

The report further warned that IS West Africa was increasingly targeting “foreign interests” on the border with Niger.

More recent intelligence suggests that in some ways, al-Barnawi’s group is succeeding.

IS West Africa “is now a large and very capable presence,” the coordinator of the U.N. sanctions monitoring team, Edmund Fitton-Brown, told a security conference in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday.

“(It) also has a, as it were, a spoke or side affiliate known as IS Greater Sahara, which is active to the west broadly in the Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali border area,” he said.

Source: Voice of America