Although the MWC event was cancelled due to the epidemic in the mobile communications and handset industry, Qualcomm, one of the leaders in the communications industry, still launched a new generation of 5G modems and RF systems (commonly known as baseband chips) in accordance with planned ): X60.
The X60 chip is Qualcomm ’s third-generation 5G chip, and it is also the world ’s first 5nm chip with a 5nm process. It also adds a new carrier aggregation technology. Compared with the previous generation X55, it brings faster speed, Better power control. In addition, the new carrier aggregation technology used by the X60 can flexibly support the complex and chaotic large spectrum of 5G and 4G, hoping to promote global deployment of 5G networks.
Why promote 5G process deployment?
5G (5th generation mobile communication technology) has been deployed in the technology industry for 4-5 years. Despite the emergence of 5G mobile phones in the last year, it is still far from universal. Why does 5G look so close, but actually so far?
The reason is that deploying 5G is far more difficult than deploying 4G. One of the difficulties in deployment is that the 5G frequency band is very chaotic.
In the past, 4G used low-frequency long waves (approximately 1.7-2.2GHz). In order to further increase the bandwidth, 5G uses higher frequency bands, but high frequencies also bring another side effect, which is shorter transmission distance. In order to ensure sufficient signal coverage, when deploying 5G, network operators need to deploy more base stations than in the 4G era, so the cost is much higher than 4G.
Band coverage of millimeter wave, Sub-6 and 4G LTE. Image source: Qualcomm.
Because of high frequencyThe deployment cost of 5G base stations is extremely high, so when the 5G technology was initially formulated, various expedient solutions were adopted: 5G high-frequency bands, in addition to high-speed ultra-high-frequency (about 3GHz-40GHz) millimeter waves with large bandwidth and small coverage range, ( mmWave), also has a spectrum below 6GHz with a slightly lower face rate: Sub-6 UHF spectrum (about 0.3GHz-6GHz).
Although the bandwidth of the Sub-6 frequency is narrow, the frequency is close to the spectrum of 4G, so the coverage range is wider (above), which can reduce the number of base stations and reduce the deployment cost of operators. For historical reasons, the Sub-6 band is further divided into FDD and TDD. Therefore, at present, 5G networks under millimeter wave, Sub-6, FDD, TDD and other combinations have generated more than 10,000 frequency band combinations, and these frequency band combinations are difficult to cover each other. When mobile phones transmit information, data often only It is blocked in the same combined frequency band, which prevents us from running out of bandwidth.
It does n’t matter if you do n’t understand it. Global mobile communication network signals are transmitted on different radio frequency bands in the atmosphere. Imagine that each frequency band is a highway, but these highways use various standard technologies and are not compatible with each other.
So if you use Band-1 of Sub-6 FDD to transmit this packet, all the information must be squeezed on this road for transmission (above), even if the next band is vacant, you can only look at it Watching the data jam in the same frequency band. The more mobile phones and data on this “highway”, the slower the transmission speed will be. In this way, not only the radio resources in the atmosphere are wasted, but it is also difficult for operators to deploy.
What is “Carrier Aggregation” technology?
But X60 adopts “Carrier Aggregation” technology. When the mobile phone transmits data, X60 can flexibly transmit data through multiple frequency bands. The situation is as if the road is widened. The traffic jams can be from different lanes. Shipping documents (above). “Carrier aggregation” can make 5G transmission speed faster under limited base stations, and the throughput of the network will increase. It can also allow more devices to transfer more information through the 5G network at the same time. It can also pass different coverage areas. Frequency bands to increase 5G coverage.
For example, if the operator supports Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) for 4G spectrum, using an X60 phone will directly use the idle 4G frequency band to transmit 5G signals. Therefore, the operator can use the original 4G frequency band. Spreading the 5G TDD frequency band directly makes it easier and cheaper for operators to deploy.
Image source: Qualcomm” .
However, although the peak rate of X60 will be double that of X55 under carrier aggregation according to Qualcomm, according to the official