5G RedCap is here! Standards are in place, and the industrial ecosystem is maturing rapidly. Special article on June 10 (Jiang Junmu) Repeated epidemics have not stopped the enthusiasm for global deployment and commercial 5G. GSA data shows that as of the end of March this year, 491 operators in 148 countries or regions have invested in initiatives related to launching 5G services. Among them, 213 operators in 85 countries or regions have launched commercial 5G services, and 1,334 5G terminal models have been released. In industrial development, standards come first. At the just-concluded 3GPP RAN 96 meeting, 3GPP announced the freezing of the R17 standard. After three versions of R15, R16 and R17, the full picture of 5G technology has been presented to us. At the same time, this also lays the foundation for a new round of innovative evolution in the future, namely 5G-Advanced. As a key milestone, R17 not only brings more enhancements and expansion features to many basic technologies of the 5G system, such as industrial IoT enhancement, positioning enhancement, V2X enhancement, terminal energy saving, coverage enhancement, expanded direct connection communication function, non-terrestrial communication, etc., but also expands the application scope of 5G through the introduction of RedCap, popularizes it to more IoT scenarios, and paves the way for the arrival of a smart world where everything is connected. What is RedCap? Youth Edition 5G may be a little unfamiliar to the term RedCap, but many people must have heard of its original name NR-Light or NR-Lite. The so-called RedCap stands for Reduced Capability. It is a new technology standard specially researched for medium- and high-speed connections in the R17 stage. It can be regarded as the youth version of 5G. If the previous generations of mobile communication technology mainly solved the problem of connection between people, then an important goal of 5G at the beginning of its design was to connect everything, so as to empower the digital transformation of thousands of industries. It is predicted that by 2035, 5G will drive global industry output growth by US 13.2 trillion and create 22.3 million jobs. However, as the integration of 5G and the real economy deepens, some problems have also surfaced. One of the major pain points is the high cost of 5G terminal chips and modules, which has largely hindered the implementation of 5G in vertical industries. RedCap is the industry s solution to this problem. Unlike smartphones that require large bandwidth and high-speed support, IoT terminals in some scenarios have certain performance requirements but are not that high. RedCap achieves a balance between performance and cost by supporting lower complexity 5G terminals. It has a wide range of applications, mainly covering three major scenarios: industrial wireless sensors, video surveillance and smart wearable devices. It is expected that the number of global connections will reach nearly 10 billion by 2030. Specifically, RedCap has made many simplifications and customizations compared to NR, including: low cost: by reducing the terminal bandwidth, its maximum bandwidth is 20MHz in the Sub-6GHz frequency band; reducing the number of terminal receiving antennas and layers, supporting 1 or 2 receptions, significantly reducing the cost of 5G terminal chips and modules. It is expected that the cost of RedCap modules can be reduced by 5 times compared to eMBB, and the price of large-scale commercial modules can be comparable to Cat.4. Large capacity and efficient coexistence: It works on the 5G network through independent initial BWP and non-cell-defined synchronization signals, and efficiently coexists with eMBB terminals, giving full play to the intergenerational differences such as 5G's large bandwidth advantages and large system capacity. Optional support for more functions: including lower latency, slicing, positioning, low power consumption and other capabilities. Standards and ecology are both strong, and RedCap is about to be commercialized. From the technical characteristics, we can see that RedCap is between eMBB and LPWA represented by NB-IoT and LTE-M, filling the gap of 5G in the medium and high-speed connection field and even in the middle zone of eMBB, uRLLC and mMTC. The scenarios it targets also have extremely broad market space. Therefore, it is not so difficult to understand that it has attracted attention from the industry since its birth. In June 2019, at the 3GPP RAN 84 meeting, RedCap appeared for the first time in the form of an R17 research project; in March 2021, 3GPP officially approved the establishment of the NR RedCap UE standardization project. The freezing of the R17 standard marks the completion of the first version of the RedCap standard and is ready for commercial use. In terms of subsequent evolution, R18 has also identified the topic of RedCap enhancement. The main directions include research on technologies to further reduce the complexity of user terminals and research on technologies to reduce power consumption. At the same time, the RedCap industry ecosystem is maturing rapidly. In terms of industrial policy, the 5G Application Sail Action Plan (2021-2023) jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ten ministries and commissions clearly proposes to speed up the shortcomings of the industry, accelerate the research and development and industrialization of lightweight 5G chip modules, and further improve the cost performance of terminal modules; achieve an average annual growth rate of 5G IoT end users of over 200%. Among them, vertical industries such as 5G+ Industrial Internet and 5G+ Smart City are highlighted, as well as application fields such as intelligent security monitoring, new wearable devices, remote control equipment, and high-definition video surveillance, which are expected to become the stage for RedCap to show its talents The IMT 2020 (5G) promotion group has high hopes for RedCap, and plans to complete research on application scenarios and key technologies, formulate key technology test specifications, and conduct key technology tests in 2022; in 2023, it will formulate terminal and system equipment specifications and test specifications for commercial needs, and carry out end-to-end testing and interoperability testing. In terms of chips and modules, mainstream chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, UNISOC, and MediaTek, as well as leading domestic and foreign wireless module suppliers, are actively participating in and promoting the development process of RedCap, and have started relevant research and development work in advance, including the launch of the RedCap prototype system. In terms of industry applications, RedCap has won the favor of multiple vertical industries. Manufacturing, electric power, smart cities, security and other industries have invested heavily in promoting the definition and adaptation of RedCap in specific scenarios, technologies and product solutions. As the backbone of the industrial ecosystem, some leading operators have also stated that they will introduce RedCap in due course depending on the progress of 3GPP standardization. Recently, China Mobile Research Institute released the China Mobile 5G RedCap Technology White Paper , which clarified the technical positioning of RedCap in the 5G system, deeply analyzed the key technical characteristics of RedCap, and on this basis, carried out RedCap market prospect analysis and compatibility research with key application scenarios, so as to enable RedCap to better serve market needs. Based on industry experience, as well as the completeness of standards and industrial ecology, it is estimated that by 2023 we are expected to see the release of RedCap commercial terminals and the launch of applications in some scenarios. Currently, 5G empowers thousands of industries and is in a critical stage of accelerating from taking root to flowering and bearing fruit . The readiness of the RedCap standard has filled the shortcomings in differentiated IoT scenarios and terminal costs, and has provided a great tool for the large-scale replication and promotion of 5G industry applications. In the long run, RedCap also provides a new evolution path for cellular IoT, injecting strong impetus into the sustainable development of the 5G industry and the realization of the Internet of Everything in the next ten years. New standards, new IoT, new business, the future of RedCap is worth looking forward to