As one of the key objectives, South Korea's K-Network 2030 strategy aims to strengthen and upgrade the country's network infrastructure while developing energy-efficient and fail-proof systems. Upgrading the backbone network, which is the core element, is an important part of such efforts, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest report covering South Korea's communication technology deployment.
South Korea has set the goal of doubling its optical communication speed by 2026 and quadrupling it by 2030. Meanwhile, it will also boost the country's submarine cable transmission capacity. Furthermore, it is committed to the R&D of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and energy efficiency solutions for network communication purposes as well as enhancements to failure prevention systems.
South Korea looks to deploy 6G communication via both terrestrial networks and satellite communication by 2030, enabling signal coverage at an altitude of 10km. To meet the demand for 6G communication to show significant improvement over 5G in terms of user experience and peak data rates, South Korea will also drive backbone network infrastructure upgrade, which has a higher correlation with fixed broadband performance, for high-performance network services.
For example, South Korea aims to raise the packet optical transport network (POTN) speed from 100Gbps at present to 200Gbps by 2026 and 400Gbps by 2030 while largely boosting the transmission capacity as well, the report's study shows.
With respect to submarine cable networks, among the country's top three telecom operators, Korea Telecom (KT) manages the largest submarine cable network. In an effort to diversify risks, South Korea plans to add submarine cables near Jeju Island for external connection by 2030 while expanding submarine cable transmission capacity.
In addition, to achieve carbon neutrality, South Korea will focus on the development of energy-efficient 6G AI chips, base stations, and repeaters and incorporate AI-based energy-saving systems for cellular base stations.
In view of the fact that despite network infrastructure upgrades, failure prevention remains critical to boosting network competitiveness, South Korea will strengthen its fail-proof communication systems to guarantee uninterrupted digital services. Furthermore, it will also work on next-generation cyber security technologies.
