In telecommunications, 6G is the designation for a future technical standard of a sixth-generation technology for wireless communications.

It is the planned successor to 5G, and is in development by numerous companies (Airtel, Anritsu, Apple, Ericsson, Fly, Huawei, Jio, Keysight, LG, Nokia, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Vi, Xiaomi), research institutes (Technology Innovation Institute, the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre) and countries (United States, countries in the European Union, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and United Arab Emirates) that have shown interest in 6G networks.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

6G networks will likely be significantly faster than previous generations,[7] and are expected to be more diverse, and are likely to support applications beyond current mobile use scenarios, such as ubiquitous instant communications, pervasive intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT).[8] It is expected that mobile network operators will adopt flexible decentralized business models for 6G, with local spectrum licensing, spectrum sharing, infrastructure sharing, and intelligent automated management underpinned by mobile edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), short-packet communication and blockchain technologies.[9][10][11][12]

The Next G Alliance outlined the development roadmap of 6G in a report in February 2022.[13] Being in the early stages of development, as of 2023, no universally-accepted standards exist that specify the components of the technology, but systems are expected to be deployed by 2028.[14]

Expectations

6G networks are expected to be developed and released by the late 2020s.[15][16] The largest number of 6G patents have been filed in China and USA, far ahead of any other country.[17][18]

Features

Recent academic publications have been conceptualizing 6G and new features that may be included. Artificial intelligence (AI) is included in many predictions, from 6G supporting AI infrastructure to "AI designing and optimizing 6G architectures, protocols, and operations."[19] Another study in Nature Electronics looks to provide a framework for 6G research stating "We suggest that human-centric mobile communications will still be the most important application of 6G and the 6G network should be human-centric. Thus, high security, secrecy and privacy should be key features of 6G and should be given particular attention by the wireless research community."[20]

Transmission

The frequency bands for 6G are undetermined. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers states that "Frequencies from 100 GHz to 3 THz are promising bands for the next generation of wireless communication systems because of the wide swaths of unused and unexplored spectrum."[21]

One of the challenges in supporting the required high transmission speeds will be the limitation of energy consumption and associated thermal protection in the electronic circuits.[22]

Terahertz and millimeter wave progress

Millimeter waves (30 to 300 GHz) and terahertz radiation (300 to 3000 GHz) might, according to some speculations, be used in 6G. The wave propagation of these frequencies is much more sensitive to obstacles than the microwave frequencies (about 2 to 30 GHz) used in 5G and Wi-Fi, which are more sensitive than the radio waves used in 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G.

In October 2020, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) launched a "Next G Alliance", an alliance consisting of AT&T, Ericsson, Telus, Verizon, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Samsung, and others that "will advance North American mobile technology leadership in 6G and beyond over the next decade."[23]

In January 2022, Purple Mountain Laboratories of China claimed that its research team had achieved a world record of 206.25 gigabits per second (Gbit/s) data rate for the first time in a lab environment within the terahertz frequency band which is supposed to be the base of 6G cellular technology[24]

In February 2022, Chinese researchers stated that they had achieved a record data streaming speed using vortex millimetre waves, a form of extremely high-frequency radio wave with rapidly changing spins, the researchers transmitted 1 terabyte of data over a distance of 1 km (3,300 feet) in a second. The spinning potential of radio waves was first reported by British physicist John Henry Poynting in 1909, but making use of it proved to be difficult. Zhang and colleagues said their breakthrough was built on the hard work of many research teams across the globe over the past few decades. Researchers in Europe conducted the earliest communication experiments using vortex waves in the 1990s. A major challenge is that the size of the spinning waves increases with distance, and the weakening signal makes high-speed data transmission difficult. The Chinese team built a unique transmitter to generate a more focused vortex beam, making the waves spin in three different modes to carry more information, and developed a high-performance receiving device that could pick up and decode a huge amount of data in a split second.[25]

In 2023, Nagoya University in Japan reported successful fabrication of three-dimensional wave guides with niobium metal,[26] a superconducting material that minimizes attenuation due to absorption and radiation, for transmission of waves in the 100GHz frequency band, deemed useful in 6G networking.

Test satellites

On November 6, 2020, China launched a Long March 6 rocket with a payload of thirteen satellites into orbit. One of the satellites reportedly served as an experimental testbed for 6G technology, which was described as "the world's first 6G satellite."[27]

Geopolitics

During rollout of 5G, China banned Ericsson in favour of Chinese suppliers, primarily Huawei and ZTE.[28] Huawei and ZTE were banned in many Western countries over concerns of spying.[29] This creates a risk of 6G network fragmentation.[30] Many power struggles are expected during the development of common standards.[31]

6G is considered a key technology for economic competitiveness, national security, and the functioning of society. It is a national priority in many countries and is named as priority in the Fourteenth five-year plan (China).[32][33]

Many countries are favouring Open RAN approach, where different suppliers can be integrated together, where hardware and software are independent of supplier.[34]

References

  1. ↑ Khan, Danish (January 2022). "Airtel, Vi push for work on 6G tech". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  2. ↑ "Indian Telecom Jio partners with University of Oulu over development of 6G technology". indianexpress. January 21, 2022.
  3. ↑ Rappaport, Theodore S. (10 February 2020). "Opinion: Think 5G is exciting? Just wait for 6G". CNN.
  4. ↑ Kharpal, Arjun (November 7, 2019). "China starts development of 6G, having just turned on its 5G mobile network". CNBC.
  5. ↑ Andy Boxall; Tyler Lacoma (January 21, 2021). "What is 6G, how fast will it be, and when is it coming?". DigitalTrends. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  6. ↑ "DoT to seek TRAI comment on use of 95GHz-3THz airwaves". TeleGeography. 2022-11-11. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  7. ↑ Fisher, Tim. "6G: What It Is & When to Expect It". Lifewire. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  8. ↑ Dohler, M.; Mahmoodi, T.; Lema, M. A.; Condoluci, M.; Sardis, F.; Antonakoglou, K.; Aghvami, H. (2017). "Internet of skills, where robotics meets AI, 5G and the Tactile Internet". 2017 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) (PDF). pp. 1–5. doi:10.1109/EuCNC.2017.7980645. ISBN 978-1-5386-3873-6. S2CID 32801348.
  9. ↑ Saad, W.; Bennis, M.; Chen, M. (2020). "A Vision of 6G Wireless Systems: Applications, Trends, Technologies, and Open Research Problems" (PDF). IEEE Network. 34 (3): 134–142. doi:10.1109/MNET.001.1900287. ISSN 1558-156X. S2CID 67856161.
  10. ↑ Yang, H.; Alphones, A.; Xiong, Z.; Niyato, D.; Zhao, J.; Wu, K. (2020). "Artificial-Intelligence-Enabled Intelligent 6G Networks". IEEE Network. 34 (6): 272–280. arXiv:1912.05744. doi:10.1109/MNET.011.2000195. ISSN 1558-156X. S2CID 209324400.
  11. ↑ Xiao, Y.; Shi, G.; Li, Y.; Saad, W.; Poor, H. V. (2020). "Toward Self-Learning Edge Intelligence in 6G". IEEE Communications Magazine. 58 (12): 34–40. arXiv:2010.00176. doi:10.1109/MCOM.001.2000388. ISSN 1558-1896. S2CID 222090032.
  12. ↑ Guo, W. (2020). "Explainable Artificial Intelligence for 6G: Improving Trust between Human and Machine". IEEE Communications Magazine. 58 (6): 39–45. doi:10.1109/MCOM.001.2000050. hdl:1826/15857. S2CID 207863445.
  13. ↑ "National 6G Roadmap".
  14. ↑ "Korea plans to launch 6G network service in 2028". 2023-02-20.
  15. ↑ "China sends world's first 6G test satellite into orbit". Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  16. ↑ "China launches 'world's first 6G experiment satellite'". Anadolu Agency. 6 November 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-11-06. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  17. ↑ "Figure 5. The 6G patent applications by country/region". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  18. ↑ "6G patent share by region 2021". Statista. 2021-09-16. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  19. ↑ Letaief, Khaled B.; Chen, Wei; Shi, Yuanming; Zhang, Jun; Zhang, Ying-Jun Angela (August 2019). "The roadmap to 6G: AI empowered wireless networks". IEEE Communications Magazine. Vol. 57, no. 8. pp. 84–90. arXiv:1904.11686. doi:10.1109/mcom.2019.1900271.
  20. ↑ Dang, Shuping; Amin, Osama; Shihada, Basem; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim (January 2020). "What should 6G be?". Nature Electronics. 3 (1): 20–29. arXiv:1906.00741. doi:10.1038/s41928-019-0355-6. ISSN 2520-1131. S2CID 211095143.
  21. ↑ Rappaport, Theodore S.; Xing, Yunchou; Kanhere, Ojas; Ju, Shihao; Madanayake, Arjuna; Mandal, Soumyajit; Alkhateeb, Ahmed; Trichopoulos, Georgios C. (2019). "Wireless Communications and Applications Above 100 GHz: Opportunities and Challenges for 6G and Beyond". IEEE Access. 7: 78729–78757. Bibcode:2019IEEEA...778729R. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2921522. ISSN 2169-3536.
  22. ↑ Peter Smulders (2013). "The Road to 100 Gb/s Wireless and Beyond: Basic Issues and Key Directions". IEEE Communications Magazine. 51 (12): 86–91. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2013.6685762. S2CID 12358456.
  23. ↑ Wolfe, Marcella (October 13, 2020). "ATIS Launches Next G Alliance to Advance North American Leadership in 6G". Atis. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  24. ↑ Kumar, Nitesh (21 January 2022). "6G|What Is 6G?|6G In India|Which Country Has 6G Network?|6G Application". techbyte.co.in. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  25. ↑ Chen, Stephen (2022-02-10). "Race to 6G: Chinese researchers declare data streaming record with whirling radio waves". South China Morning Post.
  26. ↑ Nagoya University (2023-10-05). "Superconducting niobium waveguide achieves high-precision communications for B5G/6G networks". techxplore.com. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  27. ↑ "China sends 'world's first 6G' test satellite into orbit". BBC.
  28. ↑ Morris, Iain (2022-10-24). "Ericsson and Nokia are nearer to the endgame in China". lightreading.com. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  29. ↑ Zhong, Raymond (2019-07-05). "'Prospective Threat' of Chinese Spying Justifies Huawei Ban, U.S. Says". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  30. ↑ Dano, Mike (2023-10-05). "6G fragmentation may have just gotten a little closer". lightreading.com. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  31. ↑ "6G Is Years Away, but the Power Struggles Have Already Begun". IEEE Spectrum. 2021-11-29. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  32. ↑ Pettyjohn, Stacie (2023-11-14). "U.S.-China Competition and the Race to 6G". cnas.org. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  33. ↑ "Translation: 14th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization – Dec. 2021". DigiChina. 2022-01-24. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  34. ↑ Kim, Mi-jin; Eom, Doyoung; Lee, Heejin (2023). "The geopolitics of next generation mobile communication standardization: The case of open RAN". Telecommunications Policy. Elsevier BV. 47 (10): 102625. doi:10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102625. ISSN 0308-5961.
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