LG Uplus Tests Next-Gen Network Technology

LG Uplus employees introduce long-distance fronthaul technology in an equipment room at the company's Magok headquarters in Gangseo District, Seoul. (Provided by LG Uplus)  LG Uplus said it has joined hands with global telecommunications equipment company Ericsson and succeeded in expanding the connection distance between base station equipment by up to three times compared with before. The core of this verification, the fronthaul, is the section that connects the radio unit (RU), which serves as the antenna of a base station, and the distributed unit (DU), which processes data. Technological capability in this section is essential to realizing next-generation environments such as AI-RAN and cloud-based networks, which have recently drawn attention in the telecommunications industry. Using fronthaul equipment provided by Ericsson and network automation functions, LG Uplus closely examined interoperability with its own base station equipment. Through this demonstration, the two companies confirmed that the connection distance between base station equipment could be increased threefold without any degradation in quality. In particular, they also conducted a test of 'DU redundancy' technology, which automatically switches equipment experiencing a failure to backup equipment. Lee Sang-heon, head of advanced network development at LG Uplus, said the company had verified core technologies needed for future network environments and would continue to identify next-generation technologies. Lee Ji-hyun, managing director and head of network solutions at Ericsson-LG, also said that, having checked the feasibility of long-distance fronthaul and automation-based implementation, the company would continue technology cooperation in the future, including AI-RAN.