Huawei and Sunrise 5G Network Optimization Project Wins the 2020 GLOTEL Project Delivery Perfection Award

At the 8th Global Telecoms (GLOTEL) Awards, the 5G network optimization project by Huawei and Sunrise, won the Project Delivery Perfection award. The GLOTEL Awards are hosted by Telecoms.com, a world-renowned telecommunications media publication, which recognizes companies that made outstanding contributions to the development and transformation of the industry and continuous innovation.

Sunrise is one of the leading operators who launched Switzerland’s 5G network in early 2019. 5G is a new-generation mobile communications technology, which is able to improve user experience. Huawei cooperated with Sunrise’s optimization team by leveraging their intelligent 5G network optimization solution. As a result, Sunrise outperformed its competitors in the first 5G measurements of the Connect Magazine (in all German-speaking countries, edition 1/2020)1. These results have confirmed the 5G analysis from RootMetrics by IHS Markit done in November 2019, showing that Sunrise has the biggest and fastest 5G network in Switzerland2.

Elmar Grasser, CTO of Sunrise, said, “Sunrise started its 5G rollout as one of the first operators worldwide and is the leading 5G operator in Europe. Our forward-looking network management and rollout strategy combined with the innovative equipment and service solutions from Huawei are the basis of our 5G leadership. And thanks to our common optimization efforts we can offer our customers outstanding 5G quality services”.

The 5G network optimization project, in cooperation with Huawei and Sunrise, directly effects 5G network experience and user development. Ellick Chen, General Manager of Huawei Network Planning & Optimization Domain, emphasized the key points of networkoptimization in this project:

1.    5G Key Performance Optimization: After 5G launched in Switzerland, the project’s drive test showed some typical issues like “0” throughput and low 5G camp ratio,. The project team quickly identified few of the major problems. The team had a fast response and collaborated with Sunrise Optimization experts to lead network performance enhancements, which reduced the NR samples with 0 throughput by a factor of 10x. It improved the 5G camp ratio by two times. The optimization improved by 47 percent 5G average throughput and the peak throughput has reached almost 1.7Gbps.

2.    5G End User Experience Optimization: The first wave of 5G users are mainly high-value customers, whose experience related issues can badly impact the operator’s brand image. Fake 5G, dumb or low throughput, terminal compatibility and power consumption are the major challenges for 5G end user experience. Huawei collaborated with Sunrise to solve the problems by leveraging the NR/LTE anchor layer optimization, etc.

3.    Outperformed competitors in first 5G connect measurements: Sunrise and Huawei’s combined efforts have resulted into user experience improvement and brand milestone achievement. From August to October 2019, both parties went through three rounds of dedicated optimization, connect measurement related KQIs (key quality indicator) have improved significantly and finally outperformed its competitors and won the INNOVATIONSPREIS 20193 for its 5G rollout.

Jack Wang, President of the Service & Software Marketing & Solutions Department, Huawei, said, "This award is highly recognized by the industry for Huawei and Sunrise's achievements in 5G network optimization. Sunrise choose Huawei as its strategic partner for 5G network and experience, it is a recognition of Huawei's technical capabilities. Huawei cooperated with Sunrise to deliver excellent results recognized by the industry in terms of network performance, user experience improvement, and experience ranking. Huawei will continuously provide the best 5G network optimization services for global operators, helping operators achieve a leading 5G service experience and brand."