ZTE claims NB-IoT and VR firsts

Chinese telco ZTE has laid claim to being the first to demonstrate the verification based on NB-IoT, as well as the first realtime VR service based on pre-5G technology.

The NB-IoT demo was conducted at the recent global 5G event in China, using China Mobile’s 5G innovation lab in anticipation of both the China Mobile IoT developer conference and an NB-IoT standardization event this month. It used an NFV-based core network and is being positioned as a milestone in the maturation of the standard.

At a separate event ZTE demonstrated wireless VR using a pre-5G massive MIMO base station based on the 5G tagging technology. Zhu Fusheng, to ZTE’s chief wireless engineer, this was the world’s first real-time wireless VR service demonstration based on 5G technology.

The innovative bit was the fact that the VR glasses were wireless, but still able to support a full realtime VR stream – something that is becoming emblematic of 5G. ZTE says the minimum performance needed to support VR is 60 Mbps download and a service delay of no longer than 20 ms. This pre-5G demo achieved a peak rate of 400 Mbps.