Ian Wong, director of RF and wireless architecture at Viavi Solutions, said that future 6G systems should focus more on delivering new applications rather than just increasing the capacity for services already enabled by 4G and 5G
Although 5G is still very much a work-in-progress with a good deal of continued evolution ahead of it, a range of stakeholders are already discussing and testing components and systems that very well could be included in what comes next–6G.
At a high-level, there’s a disconnect between the projected capacity of 5G and demand of mobile network data. With this foundational problem facing cellular networks for the foreseeable future, at its core 6G will likely address this issue. But how?
Sarah LaSelva, director of 6G marketing at Keysight Technologies, noted that although 6G is still in its early stages and a lot remains unknown, there are some high-level goals and technologies trends that are possible to be realized. “Adding more capacity for network data is probable. Research is being completed to see how we can use our existing spectrum more efficiently, and in parallel, research is beginning to understand if we can push wireless communications into higher frequencies such as sub-THz and THz,” LaSelva said. “However, 6G has goals beyond expanding capacity of existing networks. 6G strives to be the ‘G’ that focuses on making life better for humans by seamlessly integrating human and machine communications as well as machine-to-machine communications,” she added.
Ian Wong, director of RF and wireless architecture at Viavi Solutions, said that future 6G systems should focus more on delivering new applications such as XR, AR and VR as well as new applications for verticals rather than just increasing the capacity for services already enabled by 4G and 5G networks. “The emphasis should really be more delivering the services that actually are most impactful (…) These are the things that will really need to be more robust moving into 6G. Over emphasis on just higher and higher data rate is not the right way to go about it. Of course there’s always going to be hunger for more data, but I think it’s the ubiquitous data for consumer applications. We have that in 5G, especially as we move along in 5G Advanced. I think that the focus should really be on enabling verticals such as automotive a lot more robustly. These are things that will truly I benefit society more broadly,” Wong said.
Meanwhile, Andreas Roessler, technology manager at Rohde & Schwartz, said that one key technology component under discussion for 6G is the support of terahertz-based communication. He explained that the reason for this is that at these frequencies, much wider bandwidths are available, and thus data rates up to 1 Tbps seem possible. “6G will therefore add the support of an additional frequency layer on top of what today’s 5G network support with sub-8 GHz and mmWave frequencies. However, as with mmWave frequencies, the path loss will increase. In addition, THz communication challenges today’s semiconductor technologies to design RF frontends and antenna systems that can provide adequate output power and beamforming gains to overcome the high path loss experienced at these frequencies. THz may further help with addressing the capacity crunch; however, only there where it makes sense,” Roessler added.
Hiroaki Sato of the 6G Infrastructure Group, Future Society and Technology Unit at Fujitsu, believes that the growing demand for mobile network data requires increased capacity in wireless, a revision of network topology and traffic control. He said that Fujitsu believes it is necessary to increase the capacity of wireless access itself by utilizing high-frequency bands, such as high-frequency millimeter waves and terahertz waves. “We also believe it is necessary to introduce edge computing in edge areas and reduce traffic in backbones such as the Internet by realizing IT applications and content caching,” he added.
“Capacity is one of the foundational aspects of any wireless network, and it will continue to grow as we unlock more use cases, devices, and deployments. To boost the capacity of any wireless network, you can approach it by either increasing the spectral efficiency or the amount of spectrum available,” said Danny Tseng, director of technical marketing at Qualcomm Technologies.
Tseng explained that an example of opening more spectrum is the use to higher bands like terahertz, which can open up a huge amount of capacity on the path to Tbps. “While 6G research is still in its infancy and it is hard to pinpoint exactly how it will meet future capacity demands, we have a pretty good idea on how to progress towards meeting those requirements. As 5G Advanced helps to improve upon 5G, 6G will continue that evolution,” Tseng added.
RCR Wireless News published an editorial report about future 6G technology dubbed “What problems will the next generation of cellular solve and how?” in which key industry leaders talk about the future development of 6G technology. Click here to access the report.
