China Telecom Builds Smart City in Hangzhou with 5G-Advanced Technology

Hangzhou, known as the ‘Capital of Internet’ in China, is a city at the forefront of innovation. During the 19th Asian Games, China Telecom and ZTE actively explored innovative 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology and applied it to secure major events and support innovative business endeavors across various fields. With a focus on delivering an exceptional event experience while enhancing urban infrastructure, they have successfully established a smart city in Hangzhou powered by the 5G-A technology.

Offering More Immersive Viewing Experience

• Empowering Immersive Experience with a 25 Gbps Network

China Telecom and ZTE collaborated to create ultra-large 1.6 GHz bandwidth 5G-A equipment, which has been deployed in Xiaoshan, Qiantang River, and other hotspot areas in Hangzhou. The peak downlink rate reached 25 Gbps, and the peak uplink rate reached 17 Gbps. When deployed in large sports venues, a single base station can support dozens of 8K cameras for real-time live broadcasts. The 5G-A network can also support more than 60 XR business concurrent connections, combined with bullet time and other technologies to achieve an immersive experience for game watching.

• Providing Seamless 5G-A Network Coverage with Dynamic RIS Technology  

China Telecom has customized dynamic reconfigurable intelligent metasurface (RIS), successfully implementing applications in the Asian Games Village. This achievement has enabled high-speed network coverage in challenging areas such as underground garages and shops. The measured data indicates a significant improvement compared to scenarios without RIS, with a six-fold increase in the downlink rate and a twenty-fold increase in the uplink rate. Furthermore, the reflection beam of dynamic RIS can seamlessly move along with users.

In addition to the Asian Games Village, the Binjiang Gymnasium has also implemented dynamic RIS deployment, facilitating 8K UHD live broadcasting services. Moreover, along the 10 km footpath by the Qiantang River, real-time testing and display of sports data become achievable through beam tracking based on dynamic RIS technology, thereby contributing to the advancement of sports development.

Promoting Intelligence Growth Across Diverse Scenarios

• Industry’s First 5G Smallcell in Ship and 5G-A Backhaul System for Qiantang River Cruises

As one of the prominent water tourism routes in Hangzhou, the Qiantang River serves as a significant destination for online anchors. However, signal reflection on the river and substantial attenuation caused by ships make traditional networks inadequate to meet the demands of multiple anchors. In collaboration with ZTE, China Telecom has successfully deployed cutting-edge 1.6 GHz ultra-large 5G-A equipment on the Qiantang River. This deployment enables a single terminal downlink peak exceeding 11 Gbps, facilitating numerous anchors in conducting high-definition live broadcasts. Additionally, an innovative 5G smallcell and 5G-A backhaul system have been implemented on cruise ships, significantly enhancing user experience by more than tenfold.

• 5G-A Nomadic Base Station Facilitates New Business of China Media Group

China Telecom and China Media Group (CMG) have collaborated to implement a new lightweight business for new media based on 5G-A. Leveraging ZTE’s 5G-A private network and nomadic base stations, they can achieve stable transmission of uplink 2G+ ultra-large capacity and 4k live broadcasts with a shallow compression ratio of 1:8. By incorporating real-time chroma keying in live broadcasting, low-latency virtual interaction within the same frame can be experienced. This technology has been successfully applied to numerous CMG new media programs.

• RedCap and ISAC Enable Low-Cost Ground and Air Inspections

China Telecom and ZTE have implemented the reduced capability (RedCap) technology in Hangzhou Smart E Valley. Leveraging the advantages of RedCap’s high capacity and low latency, real-time ground image acquisition and transmission can be achieved, enabling cost-effective campus inspections.

Intelligent solutions are also being applied in the low-altitude domain. China Telecom introduced ZTE’s integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technology, ensuring low-altitude security during the Asian Games. By utilizing this technology, a low-altitude security line is established at the entrance of the Asian Games Village. The 5G-A base station facilitates the detection of object positions and heights within a 1 km range, achieving sub-meter level accuracy.

• Industry’s First 5G NTN Application in Sea Scenario Enables Real-Time Monitoring and Transmission of Water Quality Data

China Telecom and ZTE have successfully conducted the industry’s first 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) application verification in sea scenarios. In these sea and uninhabited island scenarios, seamless on-orbit interaction and efficient business data transmission can be achieved, enabling real-time business verification across multiple terminals and diverse situations. This encompasses sea water quality monitoring, uninhabited island temperature and humidity monitoring, as well as uninhabited island emergency distress management, yielding favorable outcomes

Optimizing Network Operational Efficiency

• Establishing a Comprehensive Control System Based on Digital Twin

In the face of the vast scale of networks, achieving rapid response and coordination is of great importance. Therefore, China Telecom collaborates with ZTE and other industry partners to contribute to the “Tianmu” control system. By leveraging the digital twin technology, they can realize a 3D venue rotation effect for provincial sports events while establishing a robust “central brain” for safeguarding. This central brain empowers real-time control over large-scale communication networks, private networks, and critical services, facilitating efficient command execution and accurate decision-making.

• Cluster DFS Offers Effective Solutions for Uplink Capacity

China Telecom and ZTE has implemented the Cluster dynamic frame sharing (DFS) technology. By predicting traffic distribution characteristics, the frame structure is dynamically adjusted within base station clusters, enabling the network in Asian Games venues to effectively cater to dynamic fluctuations in services. The data from Binjiang Gymnasium demonstrates that Cluster DFS enhances venue upstream capacity by over 60%, ensuring bandwidth for various upstream services including live streaming.

• Intelligent Respiration Network Ensures Seamless Internet Access for A Multitude of Individuals

 To address network congestion issues in high-concurrency scenarios, China Telecom and ZTE have introduced the industry's first intelligent respiration network solution. This innovative approach leverages time and frequency-based traffic distribution trends to enable power shrinkage within the network through power sharing, thereby facilitating flexible coverage adjustments. By efficiently allocating limited network resources, it effectively caters to the requirements of multi-terminal high-concurrency services while ensuring an optimal user experience.

The collaboration between China Telecom and ZTE is driving progress and innovation, empowering the transformation of Hangzhou with cutting-edge technologies. Through the deployment of 5G-A innovations, they inject boundless vitality and enthusiasm into Hangzhou, ultimately establishing it as a smart city.