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HD Streaming Videos Played Underground
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On January 4, ETRI announced that mobile hot-spot network (MHN) technology allowing 1 Gbps data transmission in subways has been developed and will be applied to the subway lines in Seoul, South Korea. The MHN technology employs a broadband frequency spectrum of millimeter waves having a frequency over 30 GHz to provide Gbps-level data service in a high-speed transportation environment. The technology may enable a maximum of 550 users to watch a video simultaneously through Wi-Fi in a running subway train.
In late 2017, ETRI completed the final technological verification in an interval covering five subway stations by demonstrating the high-speed internet service through Gbps Wi-Fi access points (AP) inside a subway train. A pilot project for the application of the technology will be carried out in the first half of this year in a subway line in Seoul, and the application will be extended in the next year.
The research team explained that the core technology for allowing the use of high-speed Wi-Fi in subways is fast hand-over technology (for communication without disconnections when a vehicle is moving from one base station to another).
In addition, as the technology environment for MHN was reflected to the 5G candidate technology specification evaluation documents of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), it is very likely that the MHN technology will be approved as a 5G telecommunication international recommendation technology.
Chung, Hyun Kyu, the President of the 5G Giga Service Research Laboratory, stated, "The MHN technology can provide high-speed Wi-Fi services even in a fast running subway train, just like home Wi-Fi. Our technology will provide the world's first commercial service using millimeter waves as a moving wireless backhaul for subways."
Meanwhile, ETRI is currently collaborating with other institutes to develop the MHN-E (MHN-Enhanced) technology for providing MHN service at a maximum of 10 Gbps. ETRI has plans to demonstrate various 5G services based on MHN-E during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games in a bus environment.