Hunan Telecom: 5G-A Intelligent Dual-Domain Collaboration Creating a New Network Experience

The rapid development of 5G networks worldwide has created new opportunities and challenges for many industries. As 5G infrastructure continues to expand, operators are focused on efficiently managing and optimizing network resources to address issues such as spectrum imbalance and poor user experience across different scenarios. In response, Hunan Telecom and ZTE launched an innovative solution: "Intelligent Dual-Domain Collaboration". This technology enhances 5G signal quality, increases network resource utilization, and significantly improves user experience through intelligent collaboration across the frequency and spatial domains.

In constructing 5G networks, Hunan Telecom primarily face the following challenges:

Unbalanced spectrum resource allocation: Indoor and outdoor spectrum resources are often unevenly distributed, making effective coordination in the frequency domain difficult. For example, in complex multi-scenario networks like universities, hospitals, business districts, and residential areas, coordinating and optimizing spectrum resources has become a bottleneck in enhancing network performance.

Poor user experience: Indoor user experience in indoor-outdoor collaborative scenarios is often unsatisfactory, especially when network continuity and stability cannot be ensured during scenario handovers and cross-site processes, which affects the overall experience.

Equipment deployment falling short of expectations: Existing network equipment fails to deliver its full performance and value. Its coverage and capacity don't meet user needs, resulting in a decline in user experience.

These challenges are common in the construction of 5G networks across the country, and innovative solutions are urgently needed to address the imbalanced allocation of indoor and outdoor spectrum resources, improve user experience, and tap the full potential of existing equipment.

To solve these pain points, the "Intelligent Dual-Domain Collaboration" solution based on 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology was launched. This solution efficiently handles cross-site services through intelligent coordination across the frequency and spatial domains, improving both user experience and network performance (Fig. 1). The implementation process involves three key strategies:

Strategy 1: Inter-Frequency Networking to Reduce Indoor and Outdoor Co-Channel Interference

In existing 5G networks, indoor and outdoor co-frequency networking often leads to mutual interference between macro stations and indoor cells, negatively impacting user perception. To address this, Hunan Telecom has implemented an inter-frequency networking strategy to separate indoor and outdoor coverage frequencies:

• The indoor coverage frequency band is 3.3 GHz, dedicated to indoor users, reducing reliance on outdoor spectrum.
• The outdoor coverage frequency bands are 3.4 GHz and 3.5 GHz, used to meet the wide coverage needs of outdoor macro stations.

This strategy effectively reduces conflicts between indoor and outdoor spectrum resources, minimizes interference, and ensures improved user perception in different scenarios.

Strategy 2: Airspace Integration, Flexible Handover and Capacity Enhancement in T+T and F+T Scenarios

Hunan Telecom has implemented innovative applications in multiple scenarios in airspace integration, enhancing the seamless experience for both indoor and outdoor users. By dynamically managing frequency bands and airspace resources, network capacity and coverage efficiency are significantly improved.

T+T handover scenario: Through flexible integration of indoor and outdoor T-bands, cross-site carrier resources are fully utilized, improving both user download and upload rates.

F+T scenario capacity expansion: In response to the insufficient capacity in the 2.1 GHz frequency band, Hunan Telecom expanded the capacity of the handover band through high-bandwidth macro stations, enhancing the user experience. The frequency integration of macro stations and spotlight antennas further maximizes the advantages of high- and low-frequency resources.

3CC bandwidth expansion: In the combined scenario of 2.1 GHz, 3.4 GHz, and 3.5 GHz, indoor users gain overall perception improvement through the uplink 2.1 GHz frequency band and downlink macro station bandwidth resources.

Through the airspace integration of these strategies, Hunan Telecom has effectively solved the capacity and coverage challenges in complex network environments, particularly in high-traffic scenarios such as universities, hospitals, and business districts, resulting in a significantly improved user experience.

Strategy 3: Intelligent Scheduling for Indoor and Outdoor Resource Coordination

Intelligent resource management strategies are employed for scheduling. By evaluating the downlink data transmission delay of each carrier, the carrier with the smallest delay is automatically selected for data offloading. This scheduling mechanism ensures that each user's data transmission experience is optimized and avoids network congestion and lag caused by uneven distribution of network resources.

In a pilot project at Changsha University of Science and Technology, intelligent scheduling nearly doubled mobile phone download speeds. Without expanding the capacity of existing sites, the average network speed of users at the edge of the base station community increased by more than 23%, while uplink speeds in nearby residential areas increased by over 36%. This achievement demonstrates the significant role of intelligent scheduling in enhancing network performance.

The "Intelligent Dual-Domain Collaboration" technology, jointly launched by Hunan Telecom and ZTE, not only underscores the importance of 5G in network evolution but also achieves efficient control over operating costs and improves investment returns in indoor and outdoor distribution systems. Through intelligent spectrum resource allocation and cross-site collaboration, 5G-A technology has increased Hunan Telecom's network traffic by more than 9% while greatly improving the user experience. It not only boosts the user's service experience but also promotes the efficient use of 5G network resources, leading to secondary traffic growth. In the Changsha Sanxiang Nanhu Building application, with the support of 5G-A, the average network speed of users increased by over 23%, fully reflecting the huge potential of 5G-A in various scenarios.

As 5G networks evolve, Hunan Telecom will further explore the application of 5G-A technology and promote the extensive deployment of 5G networks in various scenarios. Through continuous innovation and optimization, Hunan Telecom is committed to providing users with high-quality, efficient and intelligent 5G services, building a robust 5G-A commercial network, and achieving a comprehensive leap in signal enhancement, experience upgrade, and traffic growth.