UNISOC together with China Unicom, successfully completed end-to-end service validation of the world's first eMBB+uRLLC+IIoT (enhanced mobile broadband + ultra-reliable and low latency communications + industrial Internet of things) based on the 3GPP R16 standard, laying a foundation for the commercial use of 5G R16.

In July 2020, after the freezing of the 5G R16 standard, UNISOC began working closely with China Unicom to develop cutting-edge technologies, with a commitment to leading the 5G ecosystem. This technological joint debugging successfully carried out the validation of R16 protocol, 1 microsecond high-precision timing, 5G LAN and other technical features of IoT. This is the world's first service validation based on the 3GPP R16 protocol, and it is an important milestone marking the moment towards the commercial use of the 5G R16 standard.

The UNISOC Tanggula V516 platform, the industry's first product platform supporting 5G R16 Ready, was launched. It supports the features of eMBB+uRLLC+IIoT and can realize differential protection, high-precision machine collaboration, industrial LAN and other application cases in industrial IoT scenarios.

Based on the UNISOC 5G V516 platform, China Unicom has completed testing for R16 5G high-precision timing features with ecological partners in the industrial field, preliminarily having the ability to meet the requirements of high-precision timing function in special scenarios such as mechanical control. At the same time, it has laid an important technical foundation for the development of 5G + industrial Internet.

The R16 offers several enhancements over 5G R15: it supports less than 1-microsecond synchronization accuracy and 1-millisecond air interface delay, allows its reliability to reach up to 99.999%, realizes flexible terminal group management, achieves the minimum end-to-end delay of less than 5 milliseconds and higher reliability, and provides support for industrial time sensitivity. 5G R16 improves the features of URLLC and mMTC . These technical features will accelerate the IoT application of 5G for industrial, automotive, energy, medical, and the public utility sectors, laying a solid foundation for comprehensive advancement into the "Internet of Things Era," and is an important entry point for promoting the digital transformation of the economy and society.

Chen Haifeng, President of China Unicom Internet of Things Research Institute and Vice President of China Unicom Digital Technology Co., Ltd., said, “The three features of 5G comprehensively broaden the application scenarios of IoT and promote the cross application of various emerging technologies in different application fields. China Unicom attaches great importance to the development of 5G, which has many benchmarking applications in the Industrial equipment, steel manufacturing, trade port, energy resource, medical and health. The R16 standard enhances 5G functions, offers better support for vertical industry applications and cultivates a new digital ecological industry. China Unicom will join hands with its partners to give full play to its independent core capabilities and strong resource aggregation advantages, and provide benchmarking and demonstration leadership for industry exploration, and help the industry’s digital development."

Steve Chu, CEO of UNISOC, said, “The world's first 5G R16 Ready enables 5G to achieve full coverage of 'three scenarios' for the first time; the real IoT Era has officially begun. This is the industrial transformation the world has been expecting. As the backbone of the digital world, UNISOC shoulders the heavy responsibility of providing advanced technologies for the industry and expanding the industry’s development space. We will break the boundaries of 5G technology together with our ecological partners to enable 5G technology to provide greater value across a broader field."