HUAWEI ANALYST SUMMIT, SHENZHEN: Huawei announced the release of its 5G SingleRAN Pro portfolio which it claims can support a wide range of services and boasts an operational management system using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate processes.

The company said the release is designed to help operators tackle the challenges of 5G by more efficiently managing increasingly complex networks to reduce operation and maintenance costs. It will also enable operators to quickly roll out 5G networks with improved cost efficiency, argued Zhang Fupeng, VP of wireless marketing operations at Huawei.

Huawei’s new portfolio is part of a move by the company to develop autonomous, always available networks by adding AI to its network architecture. William Xu, Huawei chief strategy marketing officer, said in his keynote the combination can improve operational efficiency and help shift the telecoms industry to a healthier state.

The unified hardware platform, which is also compatible with 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies, comprises three layers: infrastructure (including baseband and RF hardware); software architecture (such as Mobile Cloud), which is used to improve spectrum and service deployment efficiency; and a layer enabling automation tools covering operator opex management.

Huawei’s first single RAN products focused on supporting multiple mobile technologies, and with the 5G SingleRAN Pro it expanded the capability to support multiple services, covering everything from enhanced mobile broadband services including 4K video, low-latency applications including online gaming to IoT use cases.

Zhang declined to give specific figures on the potential capacity and speed increases, noting performance is scenario dependent.

He said a number of Asian operators asked for the upgraded system to use for their 4G networks, and then plan to switch on 5G when they have the spectrum and licences.