South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom said Tuesday the company has developed technology to speed up data traffic by 10 times for the fifth-generation network.

Development of the technology will be crucial for commercialization of 5G, as huge data processing capabilities will be necessary, the company said.

The technology enables packet switching equipment to process high-volume traffic at breakneck speed in the 5G network.

In the existing Long Term Evolution network, the maximum speed for packet switching per server stands at 20 gigabits per second. With the latest technology, the speed will reach 200 gigabits per second on the same server and could even break the terabit-per-second barrier with the addition of virtual servers, the company said.

The new technology also helps make packet switching equipment compact, enabling network operators to deploy them at base stations and therefore implement ultra-low latency for more traffic on 5G services, added the company.

The mobile carrier plans to propose its new development to 3GPP and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute Network Functions Virtualization Industry Specification Group as a candidate for global standards.

“To provide high quality 5G services, high-speed data processing packet technology is essential,” said Park Jin-hyo, head of the network technology institute at SKT.

Park introduced SKT’s up-to-date 5G technologies, including the latest packet technology, to GSMA Technology Group in a two-day conference call meeting.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)