3GPP officially named 5G’s evolution or 5G Advanced or also 5.5G at the 46th Project Cooperation Group (PCG) meeting on April 27, 2021. It was also decided that 5G-Advanced would be introduced in Release 18 (Rel-18).
Three new use cases were added to 5G Advanced based on those of 5G:
1) Real-Time Broadband Communication (RTBC):
RTBC can provide an immersive experience. To this end, RTBC will support large bandwidth and low latency.
2) Uplink Centric Broadband Communication (UCBC):
UCBC can facilitate the upgrade of industries towards intelligence. It will provide 10 times better UL bandwidth capability than 5G does.
3) Harmonized Communication and Sensing (HCS):
HCS can facilitate the development of autonomous driving (AD). Integrating massive MIMO beam sweeping of cellular networks into its sensing.
The triangle used to define 5G has become a hexagon for 5G advanced to present 5G Advanced’s capability — from supporting Internet of Everything (IoE) to enabling intelligent IoE.
