Put on VR glasses and instantly immerse yourself in a football field filled with thousands of people, transforming into a player dribbling and breaking through; Patients do not need to travel mountains or rivers, as surgical experts thousands of miles apart can control remote surgical robots to perform precise surgeries; Miners only need to remotely operate equipment in the control room to achieve underground mining operations and automatic excavation... Behind these sci-fi scenes, communication technology is indispensable. Recently, the enhanced version of 5G mobile technology, 5G-A (5G-A Advanced), has gradually become popular. On the one hand, through a series of technological improvements and enhancements, it has achieved higher transmission rates, lower latency, and wider connectivity capabilities. On the other hand, through integrated sensing, high-precision network positioning, high-speed uploading, passive IoT and other technologies, it has expanded the communication boundaries of 5G. Currently, China's 5G development has entered the second half of emphasizing both application deepening and technological upgrading. Entering the "5G-A Commercial Year" of 2024, the commercialization process of 5G-A is accelerating this year. As a key technology that continuously expands the boundaries of 5G capabilities, how can 5G-A help broaden the 5G path and continue to evolve towards 6G? The reporter conducted an interview on this matter. The user experience feels like flying, and even when dragging the 4K high-definition video progress bar, the screen remains smooth and silky! It feels like flying! ”Recently, many users on social media platforms have reported that the new "5G-A" logo has quietly appeared in their phone status bar. This change is not only an icon update, but also marks that users are experiencing the changes brought by 5G-A network first - the enhancement of streaming smoothness in scenarios such as ultra high resolution video playback and ultra fast downloads. Compared to 5G, 5G-A brings multiple core experience upgrades for mobile phone users. One is faster speed, with peak data download rates jumping from gigabit to 10 gigabit, and upstream peak rates also increasing from 100Mbps to gigabit; two is lower latency, with millisecond level response greatly improving the quality of real-time communication and low latency scenario services; three is the introduction of 'sensing integration', supporting stable access of massive devices, actively sensing and linking with the environment, promoting the development of smart homes and smart cities, "said Yang Shaoshi, a professor at the School of Information and Communication Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Not only that, 5G-A can also achieve stronger signals and more accurate positioning. Yang Shaoshi gave an example that some bloggers live streaming in remote areas often face difficulties due to poor network signal, and 5G-A will greatly improve such problems. On the other hand, due to the current reliance on satellite signals for navigation and positioning, it is prone to attenuation in obstructed environments such as high-rise buildings or dense forests. However, 5G-A can provide high-precision positioning services in such complex scenarios. In addition to breakthroughs in the field of communication, 5G and 5G-A are becoming new engines driving the leap of intelligent transformation in various industries. One click inventory, with an accuracy rate of 100%! ”At the passive IoT technology pilot store of Hailan Home in Wuxi, Jiangsu, nearly 10000 pieces of clothing are displayed neatly, and traditional management methods are quietly changing. Traditional product management mainly relies on manual inventory and flight inspections, which are not only time-consuming and laborious, but also difficult to accurately obtain users' interests and preferences. Nowadays, with the full warehouse coverage of 5G-A passive IoT, stores have achieved intelligent, visual, and automated management. It is reported that passive IoT technology provides capabilities such as one click inventory, automatic display verification, and supports extended applications such as hotspot area analysis and user behavior analysis, efficiently supporting store operations. With the support of 5G-A, traditional factories are becoming smarter. In the production workshop of Haier Shanghe Refrigerator Interconnection Factory, which was completed with the assistance of Qingdao Unicom, the entire production line seems to have a "nerve center" empowered by the 5G independent private network, which can communicate with various platform applications in real time and efficiently, improving the stability of equipment operation. At the same time, under the influence of 5G-A, the cultural and tourism industry has also ushered in a new round of transformation. Recently, China Mobile has developed multiple 5G-A XR business pilot applications in Beijing Gongti Metaverse and Shougang First Blast Furnace SoReal Science Fiction Park. The on-site 5G-A network can support dozens of player users to smoothly experience XR games in virtual space. To provide more possibilities for production and daily life, policies such as the "5G Scale Application 'Sail' Action Upgrade Plan" and the "National Data Infrastructure Construction Guidelines" have been successively introduced, clearly promoting the evolution of 5G to 5G-A. Various regions across the country have actively responded and are planning to enter the era of "dual gigabit" networks. CCID Consulting predicts that during the 15th Five Year Plan period, the number of 5G-A users in China will approach 1.3 billion, accounting for over 50% of the global total. The network coverage will achieve significant breakthroughs in both depth and breadth. 5G-A technology has expanded the capabilities of mobile communication, not only helping industry production and improving management efficiency, but also providing more possibilities for future life and production by integrating with other fields of technology. ”Kong Luting, director researcher of the Institute of Wireless and Terminal Technology at China Mobile Research Institute, said. At present, some places and enterprises seize the development opportunities of intelligent hardware such as humanoid robots, low altitude aircraft and autonomous vehicle, accelerate the large-scale deployment of 5G industry terminals, and further improve the commercial service capabilities of 5G-A. In Yang Shaoshi's view, 5G and 5G-A, as tools, reflect technological capabilities, and the key to commercial implementation lies in the services they can provide. He believes that 5G-A is crucial for high bandwidth demand scenarios such as Cloud VR. Due to the enormous data throughput of VR applications, a single user often requires a stable bandwidth of several hundred megabits per second (bps) as a guarantee, which is precisely the area that 5G-A's enhanced capabilities can better support. ”In addition, Yang Shaoshi stated that currently, Wi Fi and Bluetooth in electronic products such as mobile phones are very popular, but only support short distance transmission. Therefore, 5G and 5G-A also have certain irreplaceability in outdoor product applications. (New Society)