Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Written By: Ben Coffin, 6G Solutions Marketing Manager, Keysight Technologies

Ben Coffin, 6G Solutions Marketing Manager, Keysight Technologies

6G is expected to be commercially available by 2030, revolutionising connectivity with lightning-fast speeds, unprecedented bandwidths, and ultra-low latencies. It will transform various sectors, including telecommunications, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and entertainment.

In its International MobileTelecommunications 2030 (IMT-2030) initiative, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) laid out its vision for the sixth generation of wireless communications.

Industry groups have published 6G visions, including the Next GenerationMobile Networks Alliance (NGMN), the 6G Flagship, and the Next G Alliance.

They envision the following use cases and applications for next-generation communication technologies.

1.  Ubiquitous Connectivity

Under 6G, improved inclusivity and bridging of the digital divide are pivotal social objectives. Voice, video, and broadband services will be available even in remote areas and in disaster zones through advances beyond 5G, such as better non-terrestrial networks, airborne and space-borne based station swarms, and mesh access networks.

2.  Immersive Personal Digital Experiences

Network bandwidths of 50–200 gigabits per second (Gbps) are expected, perhaps even one terabit per second (Tbps). With per-device throughputs of 300–500 megabits per second (Mbps) and microsecond latencies, users will enjoy rich communication and digital experiences through immersive high-resolution video calls, extended reality displays, and remote telepresence through multi-sensory and holographic interfaces.

3.  Joint Communications and Sensing

The sub-terahertz frequencies being considered under 6G will enable combining communication signals with waveforms that resemble those of imaging radars. The same antennas, transceivers, and spectrum can be reused for both communications and sensing, enabling use cases like using smartphones for autonomous driving or for detecting people in low-visibility rescue missions.

4.  Automobiles

Automobile companies are actively researching and prototyping the use of 6G technologies for improved autonomous driving systems, real-time data processing, vehicle-to-everything communication, and advanced sensing capabilities.

Additionally, thanks to their reliability, time-sensitive networking features, and ultra-low latencies, these new, supercharged wireless networks are being considered as replacements for existing wired automotive networks. This will also reduce vehicle weights and improve sustainability through higher fuel efficiency.

5.  Industrial-Scale Communications

Expect widespread public and private networks with extensive use of internet-of-things (IoT) devices for smart cities, agriculture, transportation, energy grids, and environmental monitoring. This will be possible due to high connection densities of 1 million to 100 million devices per square kilometer (km), high reliability, adaptive data rates, low power consumption, extended coverage, and high security.

6G-networked robots and automated vehicles will be extensively used in factories, warehouses, and logistics.

“6G is expected to be commercially available by 2030, revolutionising connectivity with lightning-fast speeds, unprecedented bandwidths, and ultra-low latencies.”

6.  Precise Positioning

Indoor and outdoor positioning with accuracies of 1–10 centimeters (cm) will enable precise object and presence detection, navigation, imaging​, and mapping.

7.  Sustainability

The research and development into 6G networks explicitly aim for sustainability goals like high energy efficiency, low carbon footprint, and low emissions in telecom infrastructure as well as all the other industries they bolster, like manufacturing, automotive, and farming.

Moving 6G Forward

The 6G standardisation roadmap has not yet started. But the ITU has published its IMT-2030 vision for the sixth generation of wireless communications.

Guided by its goals, several industry and academic groups have set up alliances for researching and prototyping new technologies as well as enhancements for this innovation. These groups include the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the Next G Alliance to shape the direction of this technology in the U.S., the 6G Flagship run by the University of Oulu in Finland, and the Hexa-X and Hexa-X-II projects that are defining the European blueprints for development. These groups will send their technical proposals to the ITU around 2027.

The ITU’s expert groups will review their proposals and select the ones that are best aligned with its 6G vision. By then, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which develops the official standards, will have published its Release 19 and Release 20 specifications for 5G-Advanced and is expected to work on the 6G standards as part of Release 21, which will be published by 2030.

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