5G SA is underway, ushering in a new era for the industry

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, but it was precisely under such a special circumstance that the value of digital technology applications based on a strong network was fully amplified. According to the GSMA think tank's forecast, although the growth rate of the industry slowed down in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic, it is expected that the total scale of 5G connections in most markets will return to the original expectations by 2021, with an estimated change of less than 2%. By 2025, the number of global 5G connections will reach 1.7 billion, and China will become the largest 5G market.

5G's high speed, high reliability, large connections, and low latency will open a door to existing application scenarios in vertical fields and bring revolutionary new experiences to users. 5G SA (standalone networking) uses cloud-native core networks and high-performance new wireless air interface technologies to fully realize all the above-mentioned expected characteristics of 5G. 5G SA will be a core enabler to unlock and support more key 5G application scenarios. In this "GSMA Thrive • All Things Shine" online event, 5G SA has once again become a hot topic in the industry.

GSMA releases 5G SA Option 2 deployment guide

On June 30, GSMA released the "5G SA Option 2 Deployment Guide" jointly developed with leading companies in the 5G field, providing technical, spectrum, and policy guidance to operators around the world who plan to deploy 5G SA Option 2. The deployment of 5G SA is critical to unlocking the $700 billion enterprise market and helping governments achieve the social benefits brought by mobile communications, including enhanced public safety networks, distance education, and telemedicine.

Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer of the GSMA, said: “By deploying a fully virtualized core network with standalone 5G, leveraging its edge computing and network slicing capabilities, businesses and governments will be able to reap the benefits of high throughput, ultra-low latency and the Internet of Things to improve productivity and better serve their customers.”

5G SA opens a new era for the industry

On July 1, at the "GSMA Thrive • All Things Come to Life - 2020 5G SA Summit", many guests from global operators and the extensive mobile ecosystem attended the event to further discuss and share topics related to the commercial deployment of 5G SA networks. 

Since 5G SA requires a new end-to-end network architecture design, it is objectively later than NSA (non-standalone networking) in terms of standard completion time and industry R&D progress, and its complexity is also much higher than NSA. However, after more than a year of standard polishing and three rounds of testing and verification, Huang Yuhong, deputy director of China Mobile Research Institute, believes that SA has the possibility of commercial use in 2020. "China Mobile attaches great importance to SA. It innovates in multiple dimensions from architecture, technology, and services, and can better meet the diverse scenario needs of vertical industries. We hope that 2020 will be the first year for the commercial use of 5G SA."

Looking forward to the future development of 5G SA, Wei Leping, director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Telecom Group, believes that 5G SA is the best opportunity to promote the implementation of cloud-network integration. The advantages of cloud-network collaboration can accelerate the adaptation of 5G and vertical industries and promote the establishment of an open 5G ecosystem. Director Wei Leping introduced that "China Telecom focuses on the six vertical industries of 5G SA, namely industry, transportation, media, police, medical care, and education, and will be committed to developing high-quality applications of 5G SA."

The open ecosystem of 5G is not limited to the deep interaction between operators, equipment manufacturers and vertical industries. The 5G network co-construction and sharing between China Unicom and China Telecom also provides the industry with an open and win-win cooperation paradigm in 5G network construction. Miao Shouye, head of the 5G co-construction and sharing working group of China Unicom, said: "At present, the 5G co-construction and sharing between China Unicom and China Telecom is taking SA as the target architecture, and strives to achieve the commercialization capability of SA network by the end of September."

As Zhang Jianpeng, senior vice president of ZTE, said in his opening speech, "SA independent networking is the only way to establish a true 5G ecosystem." The importance and value of 5G SA are self-evident. At this summit, we saw that overseas operators are also actively exploring and learning from China's successful experience in 5G SA through in-depth cooperation and exchanges. Globally, 5G SA is becoming a reality, and China has undoubtedly played an important leading role in this process.