SK Telecom, Samsung demo 5G handover at 28-GHz

SK Telecom says it has successfully tested 5G handover between base stations using the 28-GHz band in an outdoor environment in a field trial with Samsung Electronics.

Because handover between millimeter-wave 5G base stations is a key technology that supports gigabit-level wireless communications anywhere, anytime, the purpose of inter-cell handover is to maintain seamless connectivity as the subscriber moves out of the coverage area of one base station into that of another.

With the successful field trial of the handover technology, SK Telecom and Samsung say they have become the world’s first to verify the performance of the 5G handover technology by connecting multiple millimeter-wave base station systems to operator’s fiber optics infrastructure.

SK Telecom and Samsung built a millimeter-wave 5G system in the end of August 2015, and tested performance of the system – e.g. coverage, transmission speeds, etc. – at 28 GHz outdoors in March 2016.

Moreover, the two companies have demonstrated full HD video calling as well as UHD video streaming over millimeter-wave 5G and showed the possibility of large-volume, low-latency 5G services.

“By securing the millimeter-wave handover technology – which enables users to experience seamless provision of 5G services while on the move in a wide area – the two companies are now one step closer to a basis for realizing pre-5G and 5G services,” said Park Jin-hyo, senior vice president and Head of Network R&D Center of SK Telecom, in a statement.

“Through our demonstration of handover between mmWave 5G base stations, we have realized a network environment that is the closest by far to the real 5G network to be created in the future,” said Cheun Kyung-whoon, executive vice president and Head of Next-Generation Business Team at Samsung.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 28-GHz band is currently not under consideration by the World Radio Conference (WRC) as a 5G spectrum band. It has however been designated a 5G frequency by the US FCC.

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