Huawei 5G mmWave: 4K Calls and Cool New Tech

Huawei amazed audience members at this year's Huawei Developers Conference (HDC) by successfully completing 4K HD video calls on the mmWave-capable HUAWEI Mate X foldable phone. As the first in its class for real-life scenarios, the HUAWEI Mate X extends Huawei's leading position from sub-6 GHz to mmWave.

4K HD video played on a mmWave HUAWEI Mate X

Huawei's 5G baseband chip, Balong 5000, functions on C-band as well as mmWave 26 GHz and 28 GHz. With a maximum supported bandwidth of 800 MHz, the theoretical maximum rate is 6.5 Gbit/s. In addition, with mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and antenna modules, Huawei can provide various types of mmWave terminal solutions.

In 3GPP Release 15, the 5G spectrum bands are divided into frequency range 1 (FR1) and frequency range 2 (FR2). FR1 is recognized as sub-6 GHz and ranges from 450 MHz to 6 GHz, while FR2 is recognized as mmWave and ranges from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The mmWave band enables huge bandwidth, and its beams are narrow and have excellent directivity. This enables carriers to obtain spectrum licenses at low costs. In the demo, the 5G mmWave phone communicated with an outdoor mmWave base station, proving the feasibility of using mmWave for Outdoor to Indoor (O2I) coverage. According to Huawei communications experts, mmWave signals can cover entire rooms provided that antennas can be seen from windows. For outdoor sites such as streets, the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) coverage of mmWave effectively improves after multiple reflections. Huawei boasts leading mmWave beam adaptation and tracking technologies that ensure mmWave-capable terminals steadily and reliably communicate with base stations in real-life environments.

In contrast to limited low frequency spectrum resources, mmWave provides high bandwidth. In the future, operators will be able to use three-layer networking in 5G that comprises of low, intermediate, and high frequency bands. A nationwide, wide coverage, and large capacity 5G network can be built, with frequency bands that are below 1 GHz at the coverage layer, sub-6 GHz at the capacity layer, and mmWave at the large-capacity layer for hotspot coverage.

In addition to the mmWave 5G phone call, Huawei demonstrated other cutting-edge mmWave-backed technologies such as gesture recognition and breath/heartbeat detection.

As touchscreens freed users from physical keyboards and ushered in the era of smartphones, mmWave gesture recognition achieves control in the air and promises infinite possibilities. For example, a user can play, stop, or switch songs with a simple wave of hand.

Heartbeat detection backed by mmWave radar technology enables mobile phones to be intelligent regarding to human health.

Gesture recognition