Since the freeze of the 5G R17 version standard, RedCap has been attracting attention. 2023 will be a year of breakthrough development for 5G RedCap. From the release of the first 5G RedCap modem and RF system - Snapdragon® X35, to the release of RedCap technology white papers by the four major domestic operators, chip manufacturers, module manufacturers, and operators And terminal enterprises are actively promoting the commercial use of RedCap.
▌Why is RedCap so popular?
The so-called Dao is innovating day by day, technology also needs to be innovating day by day, and the new ones have vitality. For the development of 5G, complex and changeable IoT application scenarios have different requirements for bandwidth, power consumption, and connection. 5G greatly increases the bandwidth and significantly increases the transmission rate. But in addition to speed, there are more application scenarios that are sensitive to cost and power consumption.
RedCap meets the medium and high speed requirements of 5G, and greatly reduces the baseband and radio frequency requirements by cutting bandwidth, number of antennas, and reducing modulation order, which reduces the cost of 5G terminals by more than 50%. In terms of power consumption, a more power-saving strategy is adopted to allow the terminal to obtain a longer battery life.
RedCap is a technology that pursues a balance between performance, power consumption, and cost. It has four advantages: reduced terminal complexity, low cost, continuation of 5G features, and enhanced energy saving. The application is of great significance, and can replace Cat.1/4 after 4G withdraws from the network in the future.
In the standard definition of 3GPP R17, RedCap is mainly oriented to the three major scenarios of wearable devices, industrial sensors and video surveillance. The RedCap standard is still evolving. In the 3GPP R18 version, the focus of RedCap technology is to further reduce the complexity of the terminal, aiming to support medium-rate Internet of Things services, and then expand the application scenarios of RedCap. The application in the Internet of Vehicles and FWA scenarios is also rise quietly.
In the future, 5G will continue to promote the development of IoT technology and realize full-scenario IoT access. We will finally usher in the era of "5G IoT One Network" . For high-speed IoT scenarios, 5G eMBB will provide higher uplink and downlink rates, making large-scale high-definition video transmission, virtual reality, augmented reality and other applications possible, and promoting the development of smart homes and smart connected cars.
In low-speed IoT scenarios, 5G NB-IoT will replace 2G/3G IoT connections, providing IoT devices with lower power consumption and wider coverage connections. This will promote the development of smart agriculture, smart logistics, smart health and other fields, and realize the comprehensive application of the Internet of Things in various industries.
In medium-speed IoT scenarios, 5G RedCap is expected to gradually replace Cat.1/4, provide higher bandwidth and lower latency, promote the development of industrial automation, smart manufacturing, smart energy and other fields, and improve production efficiency and resource utilization efficiency.
For passive IoT scenarios, the Passive IoT standard has been further developed to fill the gap in the wide-area passive IoT, enabling passive devices such as sensors and tags to communicate wirelessly to achieve a wider range of IoT applications.
▌Which step has RedCap been in commercial use?
On the road of rapid development, chip manufacturers, module manufacturers, operators, and terminal companies have made great efforts to gradually promote RedCap's end-to-end testing, technical verification, and research and development of products and solutions. It can be said that 2023 is the first year of commercialization of RedCap, and it will continue to move towards large-scale commercialization in the future.
MeiG Smart has also launched RedCap modules and FWA solutions. The SRM813Q series is a 5G lightweight module designed by MeiG Smart based on the Snapdragon® X35 modem and RF system. Compared with traditional 5G modules, the balance between cost and performance is achieved by cutting antennas and performance, and the power consumption is lower. . At the same time, it realizes the Pin to Pin design with MeiG Smart 4G series modules, further reducing the transformation cost of terminal customer product upgrades.
The SRM813Q series supports 5G independent networking (SA) mode, can support a maximum bandwidth of 20MHz under Sub-6GHz, is backward compatible with 4G networks, and can cover mainstream operator networks around the world. It supports 64QAM/256QAM (optional) modulation mode, and has a higher uplink and downlink rate than Cat.4 modules. The theoretical peak downlink rate can reach 220Mbps, and the theoretical maximum uplink rate can reach 100Mbps.
MeiG Smart also launched the 5G RedCap CPE solution SRT835 , which integrates Qualcomm Wi-Fi 6 chips, is applicable to the networks of mainstream operators around the world, supports 2.4G/5G dual-band concurrency, greatly improves performance, and provides users with greater Capacity, stability, and high-speed network connections can be widely used in scenarios such as industrial interconnection, corporate office, family, agriculture and rural areas, helping to get through the "last mile" of 5G connections.
In the long run, the large-scale commercial use of RedCap will be a long-term gradual process, but just as 5G brings great opportunities and challenges to the development of IoT technology, the maturity and large-scale commercial use of RedCap technology will also lead to the vigorous development of 5G applications in the future. Inject new kinetic energy to realize a digital and intelligent future.