SK Telecom today announced that it, together with Nokia, has successfully reduced latency between the handset and base station to 2 ms over its LTE network.
With the successful demonstration of a round-trip latency of 2 ms, SK Telecom moves one step closer to realizing 5G *.
* ITU states that technologies designed for 5G needs to deliver a peak data rate of up to 20 Gbps under ultra-low latency of 1 ms.
The latency between the handset and base station in the existing LTE environment is around 25 ms. While the round-trip latency of 25 ms can support two-way communication services like remote learning and smart work, it is not low enough to seamlessly provide services that require real-time transmission of data such as autonomous driving and telemedicine.
Against this backdrop, the newly developed 2 ms latency technology is expected to facilitate the development of diverse real-time services – e.g. autonomous driving, AR and VR services – which will become widespread in the 5G era.
For instance, with a latency of 25 ms, upon sending a stop signal to a self-driving vehicle running at 150 km/h, the vehicle travels about 1 m further before it actually begins to decelerate. However, with the 2 ms latency technology, the vehicle moves only 8 cm before it begins to slow down, which will significantly enhance the overall safety in autonomous driving.
Moreover, the low latency communication technology can support services that require real-time monitoring of remote sites and control of equipment such as disaster relief robot, and will also contribute to the growth of next-generation media services like 360° VR.
SK Telecom and Nokia have dramatically reduced the latency between LTE handset and base station from 25 ms to only 2 ms by applying Uplink Pre-Scheduling, a technology that enables the handset to immediately transmit data to the base station, and short Transmission Time Interval (TTI), a technology that reduces data transmission time between base station and handset to about 1/7.
The companies will continue to work together to reflect the short TTI technology to the 3GPP global standards.
“Low latency technology is essential in realizing 5G services such as autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and virtual reality services,” said Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center of SK Telecom. “We will continue to improve our low latency technologies to achieve 5G evolution, while applying the latest technologies to our LTE networks to further enhance customer experience.”
What's speeds from what distances, how are the hand shakes between. What do drive test results look like
Is this for internal or public space deployment? Agree with Jason Stevens, all very well achieving reduced latency in test lab conditions, what happens when deployment is required in dense urban environments or differing/diverse climate scenarios?
Congratulations! SK telecom & Nokia team
Really, its big step toward 5G.
very interested
It is interesting technology. Do you have any thoughts on how this might work at scale--i.e. lot of users across multiple base stations?
It is a good step toward 5G deley reduction, then is the signaling follow for this?
And what about downlink direction, because for instance in autonomous driving DL Latency is important too.
nice 2ms!
Very nicely done SK!
Can you give a little bit more detail about:
1. Uplink pre-scheduling, is this like the semi-persistent scheduling in lte?
2. Shorten TTI transmission time: larger subcarrier spacing is used in this case?
Very good job, I think they will until 1ms latency or less. New TDD/FDD design offer really lower RTT but not the same TTI, I will be happy to read them test result after that
Can anyone share the pre scheduling configuration for this test (timer)?