Technical Overview

With R18, UNISOC is entering the 5G-Advanced (5G-A) era, a major step forward for 5G. This represents new goals and capabilities, which are in turn driving deeper and more practical development within the 5G industry and the mobile communications market. While 5G is being commercialized on a large scale, international standards are still continuing to evolve. The latest requirements are to satisfy the vision of having "information at your fingertips, total connectivity, and full industry coverage". 5G-A has started to introduce aspects of artificial intelligence, perception, and full coverage technology based on the three original 5G scenarios, thus creating an all-encompassing information system that goes beyond mere communication.

Technical Features
Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO)

Release 18 improves uplink and downlink capacity with better multi-user MIMO, allowing more devices to share the same resources. This is achieved through 5G New Radio (NR) technology. Multi-User MIMO permits two or more UEs to use the same time and frequency resources, allowing multiple UEs to be scheduled on the same resources.

Mobility

Much like MIMO, mobility is a key part of 5G networks. 3GPP has enabled the introduction of L1/L2-triggered mobility (LTM) into 5G-A, reducing service interruptions during handovers. LTM works across all frequencies and provides carrier aggregation for UEs.

Extended Reality (XR)

In Release 18, 3GPP has enabled additional enhancements for XR on the 5G radio access network (RAN) and core network sides. This includes low-latency, low-loss, and scalable throughput (L4S) to meet strict latency needs.

Indoor Positioning

AI and ML improve overall positioning accuracy to provide new functionality. Release 18 has also investigated the use of AI/ML, making 5G-based positioning even more valuable, especially when used indoors.

Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN)

Release 17 added support for satellite communication in NTN. Release 18 includes improvements to NR NTN uplink coverage, facilitating stable and reliable voice and messaging connections. This improves uplink coverage and strengthens mobility between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.

Network Energy Efficiency

Release 18 defines ways to improve energy efficiency, allowing networks to dynamically adjust power use. It also specifies methods that enable gNB to dynamically adjust the active portion of its antennas and the overall power transmitted.

Application Scenarios

Note: All data sourced from UNISOC Labs.