Although the deployment of the 4G LTE network in Indonesia is still not completed, but the mobile operators have already started the preparation to welcome the next generation 5G. As performed by Telkomsel that cooperate with Huawei. Both just did test for the first time in Indonesia to accelerate the formation of the IoT ecosystem as well as started the preparation towards the implementation of 5G technology in Indonesia.
According to Ivan C Permana, VP Technology & System Telkomsel, the trial of Massive IoT using the technology of radio access Narrowband IoT (NB IoT). The technology is fully compliant with 3GPP standards and is carried out at a frequency of 900 MHz are available with the method stand alone. So reaching a deeper or wider, and without the need for additional frequencies.
Explained further, the technology of radio access NB IoT is one kind of Low Power Wide Area (LPWA). This technology allows the device to operate for up to 10 years without charging the batteries so it is very cost-saving. “This technology is able to produce the capacity of the massive connection for a solution and applications based on IoT mMTC, among other Smart Water Meters, Smart Parking, Bike Sharing, Smart Electricity Meters, Smart Agriculture, and Fleet Management,” said Ivan.
At the press conference that was held in the Building of the Telkomsel Smart Office, Jakarta (4/5), the company was doing a video conference with the office of Telkomsel, which is located in BSD, Tangerang Selatan. Telkomsel and Huawei in a trial of the Smart Water Meters and Smart Parking solution. On the demo Smart Water Meter, the water meter sending the data and accepted by the platform of IoT, which then forwards them to the mobile app in real time, where the app displays the measurement results.
While on the demo Smart Parking, when the sensors detect the presence of a car on the parking spot, then the status of the spot parking lot “fully charged”, which is also visible in the mobile app. Smart card-based mobile networks solutions use the LPWA technology is very suitable to be applied to facilities, outdoor parking, where the parking sensor is able to operate using the long term battery.
In the world of IoT, mobile network with broad coverage needed to support billions of machine operated remotely to record and translate the data which is then used for a variety of industries. “This trial demonstrates how mobile technology can support the acceleration of the development of the ecosystem of the IoT in the foreseeable future to support business productivity and quality of life, as well as accelerate the process of realization of Smart City in various cities in Indonesia which its application will transform various aspects of people’s lives,” said Director of Network Telkomsel Sukardi Silalahi.
Sukardi added that it continues to improve the readiness of the technology and the network to face the trend of IoT is growing globally. This is in line with the vision of the company to do the digital transformation and always be in the forefront in implementing the development of cellular technology the latest which will provide great benefits for the people of Indonesia in the future. “Telkomsel became the first operator in Indonesia to implement the NB-IoT and FDD Massive MIMO as a stage towards the implementation of 5G technology,” said Sukardi.
Subsequent trials are related to the readiness in welcoming the 5G technology. Telkomsel and Huawei introduced FDD Massive MIMO is an antenna technology that has been designed to produce system capacity that is five times larger than the technology Long Term Evolution (LTE) 2×2 MIMO in general. This technology is one of the keys to the implementation of 5G technology to improve capacity and user experience in the service of eMBB.
Ivan explains the standardization of the 5G technology is designed to serve three characteristics of extreme mobile services, namely the Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC), and Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications (uRLLC).
Meanwhile, Deputy CEO of Huawei Indonesia Sun Xi Wei on the same occasion said that today we live in the information era that very quickly and is constantly changing, where the request will access data services is increasing and poses a constraint on the cellular network due to the limited capacity of the system.
“Massive MIMO technology will help operators such as Telkomsel to improve the efficiency of system capacity up to five-fold. During this time Huawei has invested heavily in the development of the technology of Massive MIMO as a key technology 4.5 G and 5G and will continue to lead this development,” he said.
