4G-5G Connection
Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom announced on September 28 that they successfully demonstrated interworking between 4G and 5G for the first time worldwide.
The two companies recently set up a virtual core network and 4G and 5G base stations supporting different frequency bands in Euljiro, Seoul and installed a terminal supporting 4G and 5G at the same time in a vehicle. According to the companies, the base stations and the terminal communicated with each other in a seamless manner during the driving of the vehicle. The 4G network used the 2.6 GHz frequency band and the 5G network used the 28 GHz and 3.5 GHz frequency bands during the demonstration.
The two companies demonstrated 360-degree virtual reality live streaming between the vehicle and the headquarters of SK Telecom during the driving of the vehicle. In addition, they confirmed that the streaming showed no problem at all even in the event of frequency band switching. They explained that this means interworking between heterogeneous communication technologies and different frequency bands, which is essential for commercial 5G services, can actually be applied to networks. The interworking between the heterogeneous technologies allows users to enjoy high-speed data communication services by switching between 4G and 5G even before the establishment of a nationwide 5G network.
In addition, once interworking between different 5G frequency bands becomes possible, millimeter wave bands ranging from 30 GHz to 300 GHz and bands less than 6 GHz, which are wider in frequency coverage, can be simultaneously used for 5G services. In this case, the former can be used for augmented reality, virtual reality and holograms requiring tens of gigabytes of data transmission per second and the latter can be used for connected cars, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, etc.