NTT Docomo conducts "high speed" 5G testing

Japanese firm NTT DOCOMO has conducted the world's first 5G wireless data transmission using the 28GHz spectrum, according to a company report. The test took place at the Japanese Automobile Research Institute and utilised a 5G base station and a 5G mobile station situated inside a speeding car.

With the car travelling at over 300 Km/h, the test was able to achieve download speeds of 1.1Gbps. By performing the test inside a speeding car, NTT Docomo was able to assess the suitability of the bandwidth for providing connectivity on board Japan's high-speed trains.

The challenge of this test was that radio waves in the 28 GHz high-frequency band travel in very straight lines, making long-range transmission difficult due to large propagation loss.

In order to overcome this, the 5G base station and 5G mobile station were both equipped for beamforming, which concentrated radio power in a specific direction, as well as beam tracking, which switched the direction of the beams to follow the 5G mobile station as it moved at high speed.

The tests were performed in collaboration with NEC Corporation and the Nippon Telegraph and Telecom corporation. 

You can watch the full test here...