NTT DOCOMO and East Japan Railway last week announced that they have verified the stable operation of important 5G communication capabilities on a test train running at 360km/h.
The trial includes handover between base stations and the transmission of high-definition video data, in trials conducted aboard JR East's ALFA-X1 Shinkansen test train running at 360km/h. The trials confirmed that it will be possible to ensure stable mobile communication environments on high-speed trains for the delivery of high-value mobile services.
DOCOMO has been working to confirm the feasibility of 5G communication in high-speed environments since 2017. For the newly announced trials, experimental equipment conforming to international standard and specifications established by the 3GPP was put through various trials conducted for the first time in Japan aboard ALFA-X running at 360km/h.
In general, communication quality at high speed becomes unstable due to the influence of direct-path obstructions and the Doppler effect. This is especially true in the case of 5G, which uses relatively high frequency bands that are more sensitive to physical obstructions and the Doppler effect compared to lower frequency bands used in legacy mobile communication networks.
The trials confirmed that the newly developed 5G technology can stably transmit both 4K and 8K high-definition video in the ALFA-X running at 360km/h. Notably, the advanced capabilities of this new technology are expected to open up a wide range of high-value services for customers traveling on high-speed trains.
