Huawei said it has become the first vendor to pass China’s 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) core network test, which constitutes an important part of the country’s 5G R&D trials for operators that hope to deploy 5G commercial networks early and quickly.
The test, which covers key core network technologies and service processes, was part of the third phase trial organized by the IMT-2020 Promotion Group and conducted at the Beijing lab of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
The test is based on the commercial 5G core network solution released by Huawei at the Mobile World Congress 2018. Technologies tested include: gateway selection in control and user plane separation (CUPS) architecture, 5G ultra-high bandwidth, dual-connection to LTE and new radio (NR), independent billing for 5G NR, and terminal access management.
The key service processes include: terminal registration, service requests, mobility management, and session management.
China’s three major carriers - China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – as well as the network technology workgroup of the CAICT were involved in the network test, Huawei said.
As of year-end 2017, Huawei had built 15 pre-commercial 5G core sites around the globe.