Huawei releases the world's first 5G-A commercial version Apollo based on R18

During the 2024 Huawei User Conference, Huawei Wireless Network R&D President Sun Rui released the world's first commercial version of 5G-A, Apollo, based on the 3GPP R18 standard.

[Istanbul, Turkey, July 5, 2024] -- During the 2024 Huawei User Conference, Huawei Wireless Network R&D President Sun Rui released the world's first commercial version of 5G-A, Apollo, based on the 3GPP R18 standard. R18 provides the first version of the international standard for 5G-A, carrying the industry's expectation of "discovering new value and exploring new fields". The Huawei Apollo version introduces the latest R18 technology, which will drive the efficient evolution of 5G and the expansion of 5G-A capability boundaries, helping operators move from 5G excellence to 5G-A leadership.

Huawei Sun Rui releases the world's first commercial version of 5G-A based on R18, Apollo

5G has entered a period of rapid development, which will drive the evolution of all frequency bands towards 5G. In June of this year, the first standard version of 5G-A, 3GPP R18, was frozen, marking 2024 as the first year of 5G-A commercial use. Currently, more than 60 operators and partners have announced 5G-A commercial plans. In order to accelerate the evolution of the full frequency band towards 5G and support the commercial scale of 5G-A, the Huawei Apollo version has emerged.

The Apollo version introduces intelligence, significantly improving the efficiency of the full frequency range evolution towards 5G through intelligent multi frequency collaboration, intelligent beam management, and intelligent energy-saving technology. The Apollo version unleashes the potential of multi frequency networks through intelligent carrier frequency selection and intelligent carrier aggregation, achieving up to 30% improvement in uplink and downlink experience in multi business scenarios. In multi antenna scenarios, the Apollo version introduces intelligent beam management, which continuously unleashes the potential of TDD large bandwidth and M-MIMO through software and hardware integration innovation, further improving network capabilities and user experience by 20%. In addition, the Apollo version introduces a digital twin system for the first time on the RAN side, based on its multi-objective decision-making ability, achieving both experience and energy efficiency.

The Apollo version efficiently expands three boundaries, achieving new experiences, new energy efficiency, and new capabilities, injecting strong momentum into the commercial use of 5G-A. Firstly, the Apollo version breaks the limitations of traditional frequency band division and carrier configuration, creating a new mode of spectrum pooling and increasing spectrum utilization by 40%, bringing users a brand new experience. Secondly, with the commercialization of 5G, the ratio of peak to average traffic has doubled, and Huawei has taken the lead in proposing the "0 Bit 0 Watt" energy efficiency concept. The Apollo version has achieved 0 Bit 0 Watt, setting a new benchmark for 5G-A energy efficiency. Thirdly, the Apollo version continuously explores new business capabilities, achieving a transition from fixed slicing to dynamic slicing based on target rates, providing fixed point deterministic uplink rates, and taking a solid step towards a deterministic experience.

During MWC2024 Barcelona, multiple Apollo versions of solutions have won multiple GSMA Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO Awards), including the Wireless Digital Twin system winning the "Best Network Software Breakthrough Award" and the "0 Bit 0 Watt" energy-saving solution winning the "Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough Award".

Sun Rui said, "As the world's first software version based on the R18 standard, the release of the Apollo version marks the official entry of Huawei's wireless software version into a new era of 5G-A. We firmly believe that this milestone upgrade will help operators quickly deploy high-quality 5G networks, accelerate the commercial scale of 5G-A, and explore unlimited commercial space