LIVE FROM 5G WORLD, LONDON: Ying Weimin, president of R&D at Huawei’s wireless network product line, argued in favour of a step-by-step approach to achieving a 2020 launch date for 5G.

The Chinese vendor is making its own moves towards achieving the target date four years away. As well as technological milestones, these also include operator trials, said the executive.

The vendor claims to have developed the world’s first network slicing prototype, which supports low latency while simultaneously enabling high throughput.

It has also introduced a cloud architecture and new air interface, both of which are designed to pave the way for 5G.

Huawei June 2016, 500x350“The aim is to bring 5G into reality step by step,” the Huawei executive (pictured, left) said.

The vendor has already conducted 5G field trials with three operators: T-Mobile, Vodafone and NTT Docomo.

“The best thing is a certain strategy for future uncertainty. In the future for 5G we see bigger challenges and lots of uncertainty. What new spectrum will be available? What is the business model? And use case? What new technology is there to provide cost efficient solutions? There is lots of uncertainty,” he said.

Huawei’s 2020 timeframe is in line with industry consensus on the commercial launch dates of 5G. Pre-standard networks may be deployed at the 2018 Winter Olympics by KT, but the 3GPP is unlikely to agree on ratification of the standard before then.