Is there a difference between NSA and SA of China Unicom?

NSA (non-independent networking) and SA are both 5G networks, but the networking methods are different.

In 20 19, the technical standards, equipment and terminals of SA were not mature, and NSA was the main business in the initial stage of 5G. With the maturity of the version of 5G equipment, China Unicom has accelerated the upgrade of 5G SA, which has brought better experience to users and improved the support ability of 5G network to industrial Internet.

Note: NSA networking mode is to build a new 5G base station +4G base station to support 5G, and then connect to the 4G core network. NSA network is much faster than 4G network in speed, but some advantages of 5G, such as ultra-low delay, cannot be realized by NSA network. There is no difference in downlink rate between NSA network and SA network.

SA networks all adopt 5G architecture, and 5G terminals access 5G base stations and then access 5G core networks. The networking mode is simpler, which gives full play to the characteristics of 5G.