The 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games, held at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, the "Ice Ribbon," opened with a significant technological underpinning: a 5G-A GigaUplink network deployed by China Unicom Beijing and Huawei. This deployment not only supports the event's complex operations but also lays a connectivity foundation for humanoid robots to integrate into everyday life, showcasing the maturity of 5G Capital's region-wide network.
The Games feature an expanded scope with 1,301 competitions across 51 events, involving 2,056 humanoid robots from 666 teams worldwide. The event count nearly doubled from 26 to 51, introducing high-intensity head-to-head events like table tennis and kickboxing, and expanding scenario-based competitions into industrial, hospitality, residential, and logistics settings. These advancements demand networks with high-capacity uplink, millisecond-level responsiveness, and high reliability to support real-time telemetry, precise control signaling, and multi-robot coordination.
To meet these stringent requirements, China Unicom Beijing and Huawei deployed a dedicated 100 MHz network, complemented by a 300 MHz LampSite ultra-wideband indoor system. This configuration ensures real-time robot telemetry and precise signaling. A dedicated 5QI 7 slice with carrier isolation keeps end-to-end latency within 30 milliseconds, enabling millisecond-level decision-making and precise multi-robot coordination, obstacle avoidance, and fine-motion control. Integration with BeiDou RTK positioning achieves decimeter- to sub-decimeter-level accuracy, facilitating autonomous navigation and precision racing. On-site tests recorded peak uplink speeds of 1 Gbps with average latency below 30 milliseconds.
Beyond robot connectivity, China Unicom prioritized spectator experience in high-density environments. Network resources and service assurance policies are dynamically adjusted across event phases—admission, waiting, competition, and departure—to prioritize core services like instant messaging, ticket inquiries, QR-code admission, and mobile payments, while also supporting data-intensive activities like photo uploads, short-video sharing, and live streaming. This ensures seamless connectivity and interaction for spectators even during peak traffic.
On the operational front, China Unicom developed the country's first embodied AI robot management platform for event scenarios. Each robot is assigned a unique network ID, allowing staff to monitor location, competition status, and operational metrics in real time, creating a closed-loop management system.
Yang Lifan, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing, stated: "This network deployment is not only a real-world test of China Unicom's network capabilities; it will also help us accumulate valuable network assurance experience for the large-scale deployment of embodied AI. China Unicom will continue to build on the experience gained through the 5G Capital initiative and turn technological innovation into tangible and replicable network capabilities for the Mobile AI era."
David Li, President of Huawei's Wireless TDD Product Line, commented: "The 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games have provided a compelling real-world validation of the 5G-A 100 MHz GigaUplink network based on 3.5 GHz 2CC + 2.1 GHz SUL for embodied AI scenarios. Looking ahead, we will continue to work with China Unicom Beijing to strengthen uplink capabilities and advance spectrum coordination, building multidimensional network capabilities with tiered and differentiated service assurance for multimodal device-to-cloud transmission."
This deployment exemplifies how networks are about more than speed; low latency, high reliability, and ubiquitous coverage are equally critical. The 5G Capital initiative continues to push the boundaries of network performance, laying a solid foundation for the Mobile AI era and enabling an intelligent future across industries.
