The process of researching 5G technology at Viettel Group began in 2019 and has since confirmed complete control over the 5G telecommunications infrastructure, ensuring robust protection from within.

A significant event in the Vietnamese technology industry was recently announced at the International Innovation Exhibition Vietnam 2023 (VIIE 2023). The Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) has unveiled a 5G chip, marking the latest advancement and affirming that Viettel has taken full control of the 5G telecommunications infrastructure, encompassing everything from wireless transceivers, switching devices, transmission equipment, wireless access devices to the core network.

The first 5G DFE chip series in Vietnam belongs to the 5G product ecosystem completely designed by Viettel’s engineers. This is the first and only instance in Vietnam where the most advanced and complex chip within the 5G ecosystem has been developed and successfully tested by Vietnamese engineers at Viettel. Capable of performing 1,000 trillion calculations per second, the 5G DFE chip series is highly regarded by reputable partners such as EDA firm Synopsys Inc.

“I was deeply moved when Viettel informed me that they were the first to bring the chip back after production, and it worked very well. Creating a chip for the Vietnamese engineer team was a very challenging task. If there were problems with its functionality, it would have significant consequences. First, it could have demoralized us regarding whether Vietnamese engineers could create such a modern chip or not. Second, it would have incurred significant financial costs. Therefore, we applied the highest level of technology to ensure that once the chip was manufactured, it would function correctly. Fortunately, the 5G DFE chip from Viettel was functional right from the start, and we are very happy,” said Trinh Thanh Lam, Business Director of Synopsys South Asia.

Dr. Le Thai Ha, Chief Technology Engineer at Viettel High Tech Integrated Circuit Center (VHT), said, “With the Vietnamese foundation, getting in touch with and mastering this technology was not possible before 2018, 2019. These are the most advanced technologies in the world for chip design. We received support from Synopsys and sent a team of engineers to the R&D Center in Belgium.”

In addition to the 5G chip, Viettel also brought remarkable products to the exhibition that contributed to the telecommunications infrastructure, such as 5G gNodeB transceiver devices (8T8R – deep coverage devices for high-density residential areas, 32T32R – wide coverage devices, which are the main products for 5G network operators), 5G gNodeB transceiver stations, Site Router 100G transmission devices, high-frequency 5G signal processing transceiver blocks. These are essential components that make up the entire 5G telecommunications infrastructure that Viettel has declared mastery over the complete technology.

Before this, three products within Viettel’s 5G ecosystem, including 5G gNodeB, vOCS 4.0, and 5G Core, had been recognized by Gartner Inc. and were included in the Gartner Peer Insights, a list of reputable international products. 5G gNodeB has been deployed in five provinces and cities in Vietnam, with nearly 300 transceiver stations. vOCS, the automatic tariff calculation system version 4.0 for 5G networks, has successfully completed testing with over one million subscribers. Previously, versions for 3G and 4G networks had served in 11 countries with a population scale of over 300 million. The 5G Core device has been integrated into Viettel’s network and has successfully served over 250,000 subscribers.

Viettel’s journey to mastering the 5G telecommunications infrastructure

At the end of 2018, Viettel announced its intention to participate in 5G technology trials and revealed that it was researching the production of 5G transceiver stations. In April 2019, the group completed the integration of the first 5G transceiver infrastructure in Hoan Kiem District (Hanoi) and successfully tested the broadcasts across all frequency bands authorized by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

2019 was a year where Viettel achieved its first successes in researching and mastering 5G technology. The 5G gNodeB transceiver system mentioned earlier was developed by Viettel’s engineer team within six months (from June to December 2019), building on their prior experience with research on transceiver stations BTS for 4G-eNodeB and pre-feasibility studies for 5G.

This was the groundwork that allowed Viettel to successfully make the first 5G call on a 5G device developed and produced by themselves at the beginning of 2020. This event marked a historical milestone in Vietnam’s technology industry, where a domestic company officially mastered the world’s most advanced network technology. Designing and producing 5G devices in-house empowered Viettel to actively roll out 5G for their mobile network and associated services.

This research journey was by no means easy for Viettel, as their engineers had to even break their own devices to evaluate their quality. Products advanced from researching small-capacity 5G transceiver stations to large-capacity 5G transceiver stations.

In early 2023, Viettel, together with Qualcomm, announced the successful research and production of the world’s first 5G transceiver transceiver (3T32R) block using the Qualcomm Open Ran standard. Following this success, Viettel will complete the development of 5G devices (64T64R) to serve network operators in areas with high-rise buildings that require high and deep coverage.

The recent announcement of the successful development of the 5G DFE chip confirms that Viettel has built and fully mastered a 5G telecommunications infrastructure, ensuring strong protection from within.

Despite being a latecomer in 4G, Viettel has transformed Vietnam into the sixth country in the world with the capability to manufacture 5G network equipment, and it is the only company globally that operates a telecommunications network while researching and producing equipment, especially 5G network devices. This ensures a secure and robust telecommunications foundation to serve the national digital transformation strategy.

S.T. Liew, Vice President of Qualcomm Technologies, shared at the High-level Semiconductor Industry Conference in Vietnam that 5G is expected to generate global revenues of $13.1 trillion by 2035. Among other aspects, chips are expected to become widely integrated into our daily lives, from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.

Viettel’s ability to fully master the chip design process represents a crucial step in Vietnam’s deeper engagement in the global semiconductor industry. This achievement also sets the stage for Viettel to produce chips for various other fields, including AI, 6G, IoT, and more, in the future.

By: DocMemory
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