Popular Science: A comprehensive explanation of what 6G is?

The earliest discussion of the 6G concept can be traced back to Neil McRae, chief network architect of British Telecom Group (BT), who proposed the idea of ​​using "5G+satellite network" to break free from the constraints of base stations and realize a truly global wireless network.

You have to know that the cellular mobile network that we are proud of today, after decades of construction, only covers 20% of the earth's land and 6% of the surface. Eliminating coverage blind spots and providing a ubiquitous network connection is definitely a natural idea for the ever-advancing communications people.

Since the topic of 6G has come up, experts from all walks of life have naturally opened their minds and launched a brainstorming session on the future of 6G, injecting their own expectations for the future into this new concept. In summary, everyone's imagination of 6G mainly revolves around the following aspects:

Of course, any brainstorming needs to eventually "converge" into a valuable conclusion, which is why the communications industry needs to publish a document like the "White Paper" as a guide for the industry's future actions. Moreover, according to the 10-year development cycle of mobile communications and the development rhythm of "using one generation, building one generation, and developing one generation", if we want to complete the upgrade from 5G to 6G around 2030, we need to give a clearer definition of 6G around 2023. At this time, publishing the "White Paper" is also a planned action.

According to the definition in the White Paper, 6G is "based on 5G, and will further expand from serving people, people and things to supporting the efficient interconnection of intelligent bodies. It will realize the leap from the Internet of Everything to the Intelligent Internet of Everything, and become the link between the real physical world and the virtual digital world. It will continuously improve people's quality of life, promote the transformation and upgrading of social production methods, and contribute to the ultimate goal of sustainable development of human society. Ultimately, it will help human society realize the beautiful vision of 'intelligent connection of all things, digital twins' ."

It can be seen that the White Paper tries to maintain a perfect balance between technological innovation and feasibility when defining 6G. This is also reflected in the White Paper's outlook on 6G's business areas and key technologies.

The "White Paper" revolves around the development trends of immersion, intelligence, and globalization, and describes the eight major business areas that 6G will focus on serving - cloud XR, holographic communication, sensory interconnection, intelligent interaction, communication perception, inclusive intelligence, digital twins, and global coverage. Although there are new concepts such as holographic communication, sensory interconnection, and global coverage - they require brand-new technologies to support them - and cloud XR, digital twins, etc. are actually application forms that have already emerged in the 4G and 5G eras, but they need to rely on the "superpowers" of 6G to further develop and move to a higher level.

In the prediction of 6G enabling technologies, the "White Paper" summarizes the top ten potential key technologies of 6G that are currently widely concerned in the industry , including new wireless technologies such as enhanced wireless air interface technology, new physical dimension wireless transmission technology, new spectrum utilization technology, and communication perception integration technology, as well as new network technologies such as distributed network architecture, computing power-aware network, deterministic network, satellite-ground integrated networking, and network intrinsic security.

Regarding the allocation of 6G spectrum resources, which has attracted widespread attention, the White Paper specifically proposes the strategy of "expanding to higher frequency bands and efficiently utilizing low, medium and high spectrum resources" . Among them: low-frequency band spectrum will still be a strategic resource for the development of 6G, millimeter waves will play a more important role in the 6G era, and higher frequency bands such as terahertz will focus on meeting the short-distance and high-capacity communication needs of specific scenarios.

Some people may have different opinions on the description of the 6G blueprint in the White Paper, but this does not prevent this White Paper from being an important node in China's 6G process. In the future, as people's understanding of 6G continues to deepen, especially with the experience accumulated in 5G deployment and application, people's description of the appearance of 6G will continue to be revised and refined.

At present, it is an indisputable fact that the pace of global exploration of 6G has been quietly accelerating. According to the "6G Communication Technology Patent Development Status Report" released by the Intellectual Property Development Research Center of the State Intellectual Property Office last year, the number of global patent applications in the field of 6G communication technology exceeded 38,000, and the number of patent applications is generally on the rise.

If you observe the directional actions of various countries and regions and leading manufacturers in the field of 6G in the past year, it is not difficult to see that the world is entering a "quick response phase" in answering the question "What is 6G?"

For example, the United States launched a research program called "Resilient and Intelligent Next-Generation (NextG) Wireless Broadband Network"; Japan and the United States jointly invested $4.5 billion in cooperation on B5G/6G technology research and development; the European Union funded the Hexa-X Alliance led by Nokia and Ericsson; South Korea invested 200 billion won in early layout of 6G basic research and development; and Huawei, Samsung, Apple and others took action on 6G pre-research...

After all, before the industry reaches a consensus on the 6G standard, it is also a critical moment for all parties to compete for the right to speak. At this time, it is very important to let others hear your voice. So, if you have any ideas about 6G, please speak out loudly!