If we’re learning anything from 5G implementations, it’s that the demand for connectivity is increasing at an exponential rate as wireless communication is becoming more and more essential to our daily lives.
Envisioning the 6G Future
Nermin Mohamed, Head of Telecommunications Solutions at | Wind River
Always Innovating: A look Ahead at 6G
As automation surges and the uses of virtual reality expand, the need for faster, more secure communication has grown. Robotic surgery, tel-a-doc services, online meetings, all these technologies are being implemented in new and ever more powerful ways. But each new implementation also strains the available processing power and existing communication channels.
Hyperconnectivity, the trend towards online work and communication has been fueled by both technical and social trends. Entire companies and even industries have moved to online working. And after the workday is over, people switch from video calls to online gaming. From virtual reality games to massively multiplayer immersive experiences, participation in online games has skyrocketed. People no longer come together at an office building to work or at a sports stadium to watch a game. They go online, in millions of homes, to meet colleagues, drive virtual race cars, or cheer on their favorite rock stars at a virtual concert.
The industry is seeing the demand for speed and power accelerating as more 5G implementations come online. Now is the time to start defining the 6G standard that will meet the evolving needs of our hyper-connected world.
Faster than Fast: Technology Progressions with 6G
The 6G revolution will focus on how to connect and control the billions of machines—macro to micro to nano—in our digital future. The 6G standard will truly be a next-generation communications standard.
Two key drivers for building 6G are increased speed and lower latency. People are already talking about 1 terabyte per second speed. Let’s put that into perspective. With 5G, you can download a movie in under a minute. With 6G? You’ll be able to download more than 140 hours of movies in that same minute. Along with that lightning-fast speed will come extreme reliability. No more lost connections, timeouts, or pixelated video calls. Faster, more reliable connectivity will provide a seamless and powerful online user experience. Whether you’re holding a project review with a global team or competing with your buddies in a Formula 1 race, 6G will definitely be a game-changer for all of us.
Imagine a 6G World
In the business world, the power of 6G will transform the way we work and meet. Think of having high-fidelity mobile holograms at the touch of a button. You can have a conversation with a coworker as if you were both sitting at the same table in the corner coffee shop. Meetings can go truly virtual, reducing the need for long-haul flights and massive in-person conferences.
Medicine can use 6G to provide faster emergency response to wider coverage areas, diagnosing and prescribing treatment across continents. Doctors can train and supervise assistants in local communities across the country, providing faster and better medical treatment.
And let’s not forget online gamers, who have often pushed the limits of virtual reality. With the speed of 6G, online games and competitions can be transformed into truly immersive Extended Reality (XR), complete with smart wearables, headsets, and even implants.
Speed and Power: What 6G Might Look Like
6G will be a massive leap forward in performance, even compared to the new 5G networks now being rolled out. 6G will operate on terahertz (THz) bands from 100GHz to 10THz, delivering a peak data rate of 1000 gigabits/second with air latency lower than 100 microseconds. 6G will be 50 times faster than 5G, 100 times more reliable, offer wider coverage, and support 10 times more devices per square kilometer.
With that kind of speed and power, it’s hard to say exactly what the 6G architecture will look like. Early discussions predict advanced levels of automation and connectivity, from cars and drones to mobile devices and more in homes and industries. 6G may also include optimizations that improve network design and overcome the current limitations of mobile devices. Advanced edge computing and powerful AI systems will leverage 6G’s lightning fast speed and instantaneous latency to coordinate complex systems like road traffic and stock markets.
Navigating 6G Hurdles
There are, however, challenges to overcome in designing the 6G standard and implementations, including high-spectrum path loss, high computation requirements, and massive amounts of real-time information. Meeting these challenges will require collaboration, openness, and cloud technology across a wide range of industries.
As billions of machines are connected to each other, AI will play an ever larger and more important role in managing many aspects of 6G systems and infrastructure. Building these AI systems will be challenging but the payoffs will be increased performance, lowered costs, and a wider range of useful services.
When is 6G Coming?
Right now, 6G is in the early research phase. 5G may be the new thing right now, but technical evolution doesn’t wait. Technologists and scientists are already studying what the 6G standard might encompass.
Past rollouts of 3G (2000), 4G (2010) and 5G (2020) happened every ten years or so. Some in the industry look to 2028 as the timetable for completing the definition of the 6G standard, with earliest commercial efforts following to test the standard and flesh out implementation details. Larger, commercial deployments would start sometime after that, perhaps in 2030.
Wind River and the 6G Vision
Wind River is already working to envision the 6G future. As we focus on assisting our customers with successful commercial 5G deployments, we are also looking ahead to prepare for 6G. We are increasingly engaged in the early stages of 6G, from standardization, openness, and ecosystem commercialization to planning on how to leverage 6G in our Operator offering.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of RoboticsTomorrow
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