DOCOMO Achieves 5G Data Transmission in Ultra-high-mobility Environment

NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced that together with NEC Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) it has achieved what is believed to be the world's first successful 28 GHz wireless data transmission between a 5G base station and a 5G mobile station in 5G field trials using a car moving at 305 km/h.

The trials also achieved what are believed to be the world's first successful 1.1 Gbps ultra-high-speed data transmission via downlink to a 5G mobile station moving at 293 km/h and a fast handover during communication between 5G base stations and a 5G mobile station moving at 290 km/h. In addition, the trial succeeded in a wireless live relay of 4K high-frame-rate video via uplink from a 5G mobile station moving at 200 km/h.

The trials, conducted at the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI) on April 8, created an ultra-high-mobility test environment using a car traveling at speeds similar to those of high-speed railways.

Radio waves in the 28 GHz high-frequency band propagate very straight and make long-range transmission difficult due to large propagation loss. To overcome these challenges, the 5G base station and 5G mobile station were both equipped for beamforming, which concentrated radio power in a specific direction, and beam tracking, which switched the direction of the beams to follow the 5G mobile station as it moved at high speed. By optimizing these functions, DOCOMO succeeded in establishing wireless communications in the ultra-high-mobility test environment.

Furthermore, DOCOMO successfully confirmed 5G wireless communication across a wide area by achieving a fast handover to maintain connection with a mobile station while switching between base stations.

DOCOMO also succeeded in a wireless live transmission of 4K high-definition, 120-frames-per-second high-frame-rate video from a car moving at very high speed utilizing New windowNTT's real-time 4K high-frame-rate HEVC codec.

Other companies involved in the trials included DOCOMO 5G Open Partner Program participants, Sony Business Solutions Corporation, and DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING manager Dandelion Limited.

Going forward, DOCOMO will continue conducting 5G research with world-leading vendors and partners to expand 5G capabilities in a wide range of operating environments.