Recently, some Beijing users have discovered that 5G-A signals appear on their mobile phones. 5G-A can be understood as a 5G upgraded version, also known as 5.5G, which is the transition stage from 5G to 6G. Some users also asked, 5.5G is coming, is 5G going to leave? There is no need to worry. For a long time in the future, 5G and 5G-A will move forward side by side, each playing an important role in different fields and scenarios, and jointly contribute to people's production and life.

  Compared with 5G, 5G-A is more than a little stronger. The evolution of mobile communication technology follows the development cycle law of "10 years generation", and each half-generation technology has an increase of about 10 times in speed compared to the previous generation. In addition to bandwidth and speed, 5G-A's connection density, positioning accuracy, energy efficiency, etc. are 10 times higher than 5G. "10 times faster, no charge" is the most intuitive manifestation of 5G-A, but its capabilities are far more than that. 5G-A supports new technologies such as synesthesia, passive IoT, and endogenous intelligence, which can better match diverse application scenarios such as human-to-people, IoT, and vehicle-to-vehicle-to-people, and consolidate the foundation for the intelligent connection of all things.

  Taking synesthesia technology as an example, simply put it as a way to make the communication system have perception capabilities. For example, the base station can detect whether there are drones, cars, ships and other objects around by analyzing the transmitted and reflected radio waves, and can also know their location, speed and direction of movement, thereby supporting autonomous driving applications. It can be seen that synesthesia can closely connect the physical world and the digital world, bringing more innovative application scenarios.

  It is not difficult to understand from this that the development of 5G-A is an inevitable result of the continuous development and evolution of communication technology. On the one hand, with the advancement of technology, people have increasingly high requirements for communication networks. The existing 5G network cannot meet the needs of emerging fields such as intelligent transportation and intelligent manufacturing. 5G-A has improved network performance and can support the diversified and personalized needs of the industrial Internet. On the other hand, 5G development has entered the deep waters and the growth rate has slowed down. The market has reached a certain level of acceptance of 5G, and it is more difficult to explore new users. The existing 5G application scenarios and service models are relatively single, which is difficult to further stimulate users' consumption desire and traffic demand. The industry urgently needs to find new growth points to break through the current development difficulties. The emergence of 5G-A caters to this demand.

  The relationship between 5G-A and 5G is not a simple alternative relationship, but a relationship of coordinated complementarity and common development. The development of communication technology is a gradual process, and each generation of technology lays the foundation for the development of the next generation of technology. 5G-A is the optimization and upgrade based on 5G. From a technical perspective, 5G-A has not subverted the 5G network architecture, but has met the differentiated needs of diversified services for bandwidth, frequency efficiency and energy efficiency through RF module innovation, software optimization, and deep AI collaboration. Just like in the construction of a highway, 5G builds the basic framework of the road, while 5G-A widens the road, optimizes the signage, adds intelligent auxiliary facilities, etc., and the two jointly creates a more efficient and convenient communication and transportation network.

  At this stage, the wide coverage of 5G network is still the core force supporting many basic applications. It also plays an important role in meeting daily mobile applications such as mobile payment, online video, and social networks on the consumer side. my country's 5G mobile phone users have reached 1.068 billion, indicating that after years of promotion and application, 5G technology has been widely accepted. During the commercialization of 5G-A, 5G can still meet the daily needs of most users and complement each other with 5G-A, allowing users to flexibly choose appropriate network services based on network conditions and their own needs in different scenarios.

  5G and 5G-A jointly promote the prosperity of the communications industry ecosystem. The widespread popularity of 5G not only laid a good network and user base, but also drove the development from communication equipment manufacturing, chip research and development to software application development, forming a complete industrial chain, and accumulating mature technical experience and market resources, all of which provide basic support for 5G-A. 5G-A is not only a supplement to the areas where 5G is not enough, but also injects new vitality into industrial development, stimulates innovative enthusiasm for new technologies, new applications, and promotes the industry to move towards a higher-end and smarter direction.

  In short, 5G-A is not a denial of 5G, nor is it an overdraft for the future. Between 5G and 6G, 5G-A builds a bridge connecting the present and the future through technical optimization and scenario adaptation, allowing communication networks to move from universal connection to precise empowerment, and jointly promote the digital transformation of thousands of industries to go deeper and more practical.

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]