China Mobile Selects Viavi to Launch 5G by 2019

Details: James Barton; Category: Wireless Networks; 14 February 2018; 6747 views

China Mobile has partnered with Viavi to introduce 5G services in China by the end of 2019, ahead of the 2020 launch that most of the country’s operators are targeting.

Bringing its 5G launch forward puts China Mobile on the same footing as other global operators, with major players in the US and South Korea aiming to launch commercial 5G within 2019. China Mobile CEO Shang Bing said six months ago that the operator was aiming for a 2020 commercial launch of 5G services following trials in 2019.

Viavi will deliver test and measurement hardware and software for China Mobile and several equipment manufacturers to support development of Slicing Packet Network (SPN) with FlexE interface, the technology the carrier is positioning for 5G transport.

Slicing Packet Network (SPN) is an optimal technology to support next-generation architecture, bandwidth, traffic model, network slicing, latency and time synchronisation. Flexible Ethernet or FlexE is used in conjunction with SPN to create smaller Ethernet channels from a larger one, or vice versa, to guarantee quality of service (QoS) and isolation between slices at the transport layer. China Mobile has requested that the ITU undertake standardisation of SPN.

Viavi is committing to support CMCC by delivering an SPN test platform, establishing a common foundation for network equipment manufacturers, chip developers and transceiver vendors to validate products based on this technology.

Oleg Khaykin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viavi, said: “In order to realize China Mobile’s vision of introducing 5G service by the end of 2019, principal technologies including SPN for transport must be standardized by the ITU-T. We have advanced our test technology to meet this objective, and our solutions are ready to support the China Mobile ecosystem of partners to deliver interoperable network infrastructure.”