In June of this year, the issuance of 5G commercial licenses celebrated its sixth anniversary. Recently, many users have noticed that the "5G" signal identifier on their phones has changed to "5G-A. What is' 5G-A '? What changes will 5G-A bring? 5G-A， The full name is 5G Advanced, also known as 5.5G, which is an evolution and enhancement based on 5G. Compared to 5G, the most intuitive experience of 5G-A is faster internet speed. Xin Wei, Director of the Wireless Information Technology Research Department at the Institute of Technology and Standards of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, told reporters that theoretically speaking, 5G-A networks have about 10 times the capacity improvement compared to 5G in terms of peak speed and connection scale, but the latency can be as low as milliseconds, and the network reliability can be improved from 99.99% to 99.999%. The maximum download speed of 5G-A data will be increased from gigabit in the early stages of 5G to 10 gigabit, and the maximum upload speed of data will be increased from 100Mbps to gigabit. ”According to Sheng Ye, a 5G expert from China Telecom Beijing, Beijing Telecom has achieved continuous coverage of 5G-A network within the Fourth Ring Road and along Chang'an Avenue in Beijing. Key areas such as universities and hospitals outside the Fourth Ring Road have also been opened, which will bring an upgraded user experience to individual users. Taking downloading a 10GB high-definition movie as an example, in an ideal environment, relying on 5G-A network, it only takes 8 seconds to complete, greatly reducing waiting time. In addition, it can also support applications that require high real-time performance, such as cloud gaming battles and VR videos. Not only can 5G-A achieve higher speeds, lower latency, and larger scale connections, but more importantly, it is continuously expanding into more integrated application scenarios. Urban drone logistics distribution, water drone inspection, farmland drone crop protection... Currently, in cities such as Shenzhen and Foshan in Guangdong, the application scenarios of low altitude economy continue to expand, which cannot be separated from the escort of "low altitude intelligent networking with integrated sensing", and 5G-A plays a key role in it. The 5G-A integrated sensing base station has increased its sensing capability. With it, wireless networks can not only be used for voice calls and data transmission, but also for real-time perception of surrounding flying objects like miniature radars. ”The relevant person in charge of China Mobile Guangdong Company told reporters that China Mobile is accelerating the verification of low altitude sensing integrated technology based on 5G-A in Shenzhen. In complex scenarios such as commercial centers and high-rise residential areas within the testing environment, clear flight paths of food delivery drones can be perceived; Within the airspace up to 300 meters where the base station is located, the trajectory of the drone can be clearly displayed on the self-developed platform, whether it is an "8-shaped flight" or a "spiral ascent". Experts say that 5G-A is expected to bring about more profound changes to the industry's transformation. Xin Wei believes that 5G-A has added perceptual capabilities in communication networks and is expected to have applications in low altitude economy, smart ocean, security protection, and other fields. With the introduction of new passive IoT terminals in the 5G-A international standard, passive IoT technology is expected to be widely applied in both wide and local area scenarios, with extensive demand in areas such as asset inventory, manufacturing, and logistics tracking. In the face of broad prospects, policy and industry are resonating on the same frequency, promoting China's leading position in 5G-A technology standards and network construction worldwide. The "5G Scale Application 'Sail' Action Upgrade Plan" issued by 12 departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposes to promote the upgrading and evolution of 5G networks to 5G-A as needed, and achieve 5G-A ultra wideband characteristic scale coverage in prefecture level and above cities across the country. Industry insiders pointed out that China's leading projects and standard proposals in the 5G-A international standard account for over 30%, and will continue to lead the evolution of 5G enhanced technology standards. In addition, relevant operators have launched the largest commercial deployment of 5G-A globally, deploying 5G-A networks in over 300 cities. In the information and communication industry, the intergenerational lifecycle of mobile communication technology is generally 10 years. 5G-A not only opens the "second half" of 5G applications, but also serves as a bridge connecting 5G to 6G evolution. 5G-A continues to support the large-scale development of 5G applications by cultivating more new businesses and applications. Especially, the early introduction of key technologies such as perception, artificial intelligence, and the integration of heaven and earth in 5G-A will lay the foundation for the international standardization of these technologies in the 6G stage, and further provide experience for the expansion of 6G application scenarios. ”Xin Wei said. Facing the next step of development, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that it will accelerate the technological research and development, industrial cultivation, and application development of 5G-A and 6G, empowering the construction of a modern industrial system. Experts believe that through the dual wheel drive of "technological breakthroughs+ecological collaboration" in the 5G-A stage, 6G is expected to have commercial capabilities around 2030. (New Society)