KT & Tessares successfully test ‘5G Low Latency Multi-Radio Access Technology’ in a Commercial 5G Network

▶ Korea Telecom (KT) & Tessares have succeeded in the world’s first test of ‘5G Low Latency Multiradio Access Technology’ in a 5G commercial network

▶ Faster and more reliable 5G service available to 5G customers

KT announced on the 28th August that it has completed the world’s first ‘5G low latency multi-radio access technology’ test in a 5G commercial network in collaboration with Tessares.

The 5G multi-radio access technology, which the 3GPP has named ATSSS (Access Traffic Steering, Switch and Splitting), is one of the 5G differentiators that is standardized in the 3GPP Release-16 5G System Architecture Standard (3GPP TS 23.501). ATSSS was defined in collaboration with KT, Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Cisco and is based on Multi-Path TCP technology. KT is leading the development of multi-radio access technology, and applied it to commercialize the world’s first ‘GiGA LTE’ and ‘GiGA 5G’ services in 2015 and 2019, respectively.

ATSSS technology reduces the initial session setup time to achieve 5G ultra-low latency in a multi-radio context, resulting in a setup delay of less than half compared to previous approaches. KT and Tessares have together led the international standardization of this initial delay reduction technique through the IETF TCP Working Group. Founded by MPTCP experts, Tessares is a Belgian tech company providing software based hybrid Internet access bonding to telecom operators.

In the IETF 105th meeting in Montreal, Canada, from July 22 to 26, the results of this testing in KT’s 5G commercial network were announced. Other working group members gave positive responses in regard to the effectiveness of the technique. Leveraging 5G low latency multi-radio access technology can provide customers with faster and more reliable networks. In addition, low-latency network technology is applied to KT’s enterprise dedicated 5G service, which is expected to greatly contribute to the activation of delay-sensitive enterprise applications such as smart office, smart factory, etc.

“The success of this low latency multi-radio access technology test will allow customers to take advantage of existing LTE and Wi-Fi networks, as well as 5G, to enable wireless services at higher speed and quality.” said Sun-woo Lee, Senior Vice President, KT Infra R&D Laboratory. He also mentioned “KT will continue to develop core 5G technologies to strengthen its R&D capabilities”.

“We are convinced that mobile Internet usage requires an efficient combination of all existing network assets such as WiFi, LTE and 5G. We are delighted to have collaborated with KT, who is clearly leading the 5G race, to demonstrate the benefits of ATSSS.” said Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO.