ZTE has become the first vendor to complete the massive machine type communication (mMTC) field test as part of the second phase of China's 5G technology trials.
The test achieved an equivalent density of 10 million simultaneous connections using ZTE's multi-user shared access (MUSA) technology.
ZTE said its MUSA technology introduces short extended codes to allow high overload and eliminate scheduling operations, increasing the number of supported connections by three to six times. The technology also uses advanced spread spectrum sequence and successive interference cancellation (SIC) technology.
The test used the latest IT baseband unit, 5G multi-band active antenna unit and new radio air interface technologies to test mMTC in seven typical application scenarios.
China's 5G test project entered the technical solution verification phase earlier this year. The test location is in Huairou, Beijing. Besides mmTC, 5G new radio at sub 6-GHz and millimeter wave and ultra-latency communications tests are planned.
One of the ITU's key performance indicators of 5G is a density of 1 million connections per square kilometer, so solving problems with scheduling resources and power is a key priority of 5G development.
mMTC technology paves the way for IoT over 4G, for applications such as connected vehicles, smart cities and the industrial IoT.