It’s not yet commercially available right now, but it’s nice to dream about a future where you will get up to 1.7GBPs of data connection right? At least that’s the result of a test run that KDDI and Samsung did to try out 5G connection on a moving train. It’s actually the first time that they have tried out the 5G demonstration on a train that was moving at 100 km/hour in Saitama, Japan. And if these results will hold in real life, then we have something to look forward to when it becomes available some time in the future.
From October 17 to 19, in Saitama (a city just outside of Tokyo), KDDI and Samsung tested out 5G on a moving train that was traveling at more than 100 km/hour, with a distance of approximately 1.5km between two stations. They used Samsung’s 5G end-to-end solution made up of a 5G router (CPE), radio access unit (5G radio), virtualized RAN, and virtualized core.
The download and uplink handover was just one part of it. They were also able to download an 8K video through the CPE installed onboard and upload a 4K video that they took onboard, with a camera mount on the train for stability. It’s worth noting though that this is a pre-commercial technology, so it might not work as perfectly when eventually released to the public.
But whatever, it’s still pretty exciting that the download and uplink handover was able to reach a peak speed of 1.7Gbps. Their test was also able to leverage the capabilities that people have been touting about 5G, which includes high throughput, low latency, and massive connections. If it translates to “real life” and to commercial use, we’ll see a massive improvement for onboard WiFi, especially for those really long train and even bus rides.
SOURCE: Samsung
