At Mobile World Congress 2017, three tends of wireless networking/communication development were revealed: Commercial operation of pre-5G networks will begin ahead of the original schedule; mobile telecom carriers are driven to change their roles to cope with fast IoT growth; 5G networks will be extensive through daily life, according to Digitimes Research.
Pre-5G prototype devices were showcased at MWC 2016, and end-to-end solutions based on pre-5G technology were exhibited at MWC 2017, meaning that pre-5G technology is out of the laboratory, Digitimes Research indicated.
Pre-5G communication technologies, including millimeter wave, MIMO/MU-MIMO, beam tracking, are expected to enter small-scale commercial operations in 2018.
In addition to developing network slicing architecture, mobile telecom carriers have begun to develop LPWAN (low-power wide area network) services on unlicensed frequency bands for IoT.
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