"Leading 5G Technology Development" SKT Publishes '5G Option 4' White Paper with Deutsche Telekom and BT

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] SK Telecom announced on the 17th that it has published a white paper on the next-generation 5G standard '5G Option 4' through the 'NGMN Alliance,' which is operated together with global telecommunications companies such as Germany's Deutsche Telekom and the UK's BT.

The NGMN Alliance is a standardization organization established in 2006 by global mobile carriers including Deutsche Telekom, which creates mobile network standard guides and provides them to equipment manufacturers.

'5G Option 4' is a next-generation 5G standard SA (Stand Alone) technology that goes beyond the current standalone mode (SA) technology 'Option 2,' which uses only 5G core and base station equipment, enabling services combined with LTE networks.

Option 2, a 5G SA technology currently commercialized by some carriers worldwide, can utilize only the 5G network without LTE integration, resulting in limitations in speed and quality compared to the non-standalone mode (NSA) technology used by most carriers.

The next-generation 5G technology published as a white paper, 5G Option 4, overcomes the limitations of existing 5G SA technology, providing speeds and quality equal to or better than the NSA method, as well as offering SA-specialized services such as network slicing.

Many global carriers agree on the necessity of Option 4 for future network evolution, and based on this, NGMN plans to verify the technical effects of Option 4 through a first pilot test within the year. Additionally, development of 5G Option 4 is underway with network, device, and chipset manufacturers to enable commercialization within two years at the latest, and it is expected that a commercialization ecosystem for this technology will be established.

Jongkwan Park, Head of SK Telecom 5GX Infra Technology Group, stated, “The Option 4 white paper, which contains the next-generation 5G standard, will serve as an important guide for global carriers preparing better 5G services. SK Telecom will continue to lead the development of 5G-related technologies so that customers can enjoy better 5G services.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.