KDDI and Samsung Electronics have successfully completed the first 5G demonstration on a moving train traveling at over 100 km/hour (over 60 mph). This was achieved along a section of track where the distance between two stations was approximately 1.5km (nearly 1 mile). During the demonstration, the companies achieved a successful downlink and uplink handover as well as a peak speed of 1.7 Gbps.

The tests were carried out from October 17^th through the 19^th in the city of Saitama in Japan, near Tokyo. For the tests, Samsung’s 5G pre-commercial end-to-end solution was used, which is composed of a 5G router (CPE), radio access unit (5G Radio), virtualized RAN and virtualized core.

The demonstration leveraged capabilities driven by 5G, such as high throughput, low latency and massive connections, which verified potential services and use cases that would be highly-beneficial to passengers and operators of high-speed trains. This could pave the way to vastly improved backhaul for onboard WiFi, superior passenger infotainment and increased security and analytics.

In addition to a successful downlink and uplink handover at more than 100km/hour (over 60 mph), 8K video was downloaded via the CPE installed on-board, and a 4K video, filmed on a camera mounted on the train, was able to be uploaded.

“In collaboration with Samsung, KDDI has opened up the possibility for new 5G vertical business models, such as a high-speed train. With 5G expected to bring railway services to a whole new dimension, the success of today’s demonstration in everyday locations such as a train and a train station is an important milestone indicating 5G commercialization is near,” said Yoshiaki Uchida, Senior Managing Executive Officer at KDDI. “To fulfill our aim to launch 5G by 2020, KDDI will continue exploring real-life scenario experiments for diverse 5G use and business cases together with Samsung.”

“The potentials that 5G holds is powerful enough to transform the landscape of our daily lives,” said Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “The success of today’s demonstration is a result of our joint research with KDDI, which we will continue to pursue as we explore next generation networks and use cases This will include research on diverse spectrums and technologies, as well as new business models and applications.”

Since 2015, KDDI and Samsung Electronics have been closely collaborating to demonstrate 5G millimeter wave performance in various scenarios. This includes a multi-cell handover demonstration that took place in February, where the device was mounted on a car that traveled in the busy streets of Tokyo (Link), and a high-speed mobility test with the device attached on a car racing at 200km/h in Yongin, Korea in September (Link).

About KDDI

KDDI, a Fortune Global 500 company and one of Asia’s largest telecommunications providers, has a proven global track record of high quality service delivery. We provide a multitude of services, including mobile phone services, fixed-line communication, and data centers, thus making us the optimum one-stop solution provider for everything telecommunications and IT environment related.

The 5G handover was successfully carried out in a test divided into two scenarios. First, a 5G device mounted on a vehicle that travelled at a speed limit of 60km/h drove between two 5G base stations on a metropolitan expressway.

The second scenario was designed to verify the characteristics and performance of the 28GHz spectrum in Line of Sight (LOS) and Non Line of Sight (NLOS) environments. At the LOS environment, the vehicle drove through the heart of the city and as a result, a maximum throughput of 3.7Gbps was achieved. This is especially the case with highly dense metropolitan areas such as Tokyo, packed with skyscrapers as well as a myriad of obstacles of various materials from glass and concrete to wood and metals.

“We are pleased to have proven the feasibility of 5G mobility service in Tokyo, one of the densest cities in the world,” said WooJune Kim, Vice President and Head of Next Generation Strategy at Samsung Electronics. “Through today’s demonstration, we have proven that challenges that are likely to occur at highly dense metropolitan areas can be successfully overcome when the right technologies are implemented. Together with KDDI, we look forward to taking steps toward the realization of 5G-driven services.”

Handover between 5G base stations is a required element to maintain a seamless data connection during a user’s movement between base station coverage, making it a critical enabler of 5G commercialization. As 5G communication technology utilizes beam forming technology that tightly focuses radio waves into narrow beams, both the device and base station need to rapidly search for the optimal beam combination, calculate the ideal radio signal, and seamlessly relay data traffic between base stations.

Ever since the deployment of KDDI’s commercial CDMA network in 2002, Samsung has been closely cooperating with the operator through to the latest LTE-A technologies. The two companies have extended and strengthened their partnership in order to tackle the challenges and potentials of 5G, an area that Samsung has been focusing its research on since 2011.

About KDDI Corporation
KDDI, a comprehensive communications company offering fixed-line and mobile communications services, strives to be a leading company for changing times. For individual customers, KDDI offers its mobile communications (mobile phone) and fixed-line communications (broadband Internet/telephone) services under the brand name au, helping to realize Fixed Mobile and Broadcasting Convergence (FMBC). For business clients, KDDI provides comprehensive Information and Communications services, from Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) networks to data centers, applications, and security strategies, which help clients strengthen their businesses. For more information please visit http://www.kddi.com/english.