Samsung Research has released a paper laying down its plan for 6G technology in a few years time: this is companies are working towards building the infrastructure for and commercial launch of 5G technology.
In Nigeria like in many other countries around the world, conspiracy theories about 5G are yet to abate.
5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.
But as the coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip on a world which struggled to comprehend the enormity of the situation it was facing, darker forces were concocting their own narratives about 5G.
Event the World Health Organization (WHO) has come out to say that decades of research, has found no significant health risks from low-level electromagnetic fields, including 5G.
Not deterred by the cold and confusing welcome of 5G, Samsung said 6G is coming by 2028 with many breakthrough advantages.
In its paper, Samsung said that if the general trend that the communication systems and their new services follow, it could be reasonably expected that 6G technology would satisfy the requirements and expectations that 5G fails to meet.
It further said in the paper that it expects 6G to provide an ultimate experience for everybody through hyper-connectivity, which would involve “humans and everything”.
The paper stated that the applications which make use of wireless technology have expanded from connecting humans to connecting various things, with wireless communication now becoming an integral part of the social infrastructure as well as the daily lives of people.
Moreover, the exponential growth that advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and robotics have undergone would lead to major shifts in the wireless technology segment, the paper states.
It then listed four megatrends which would lead to 6G – connected machines, AI for wireless communication, openness of mobile communications and increased contribution towards achieving social goals.
The new 6G services likely to emerge
The paper also discussed that while enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC) would continue to improve as the technology moves towards 6G, new services would also emerge due to the advancement in technologies.
The services would provide the ultimate media experience and would involve hyper-connectivity of humans and everything. These new services that Samsung expects to crop up with 6G are:
Timeline for deployment of 6G
Samsung Research has, in its paper, given a tentative timeline by when the 6G technology would be deployed, based on the previous trends.
The paper said that the multiple generations of mobile communication systems from 2G to 5G have evolved approximately every 10 years.
However, the time spent on defining the vision and the development of the technical standards reduced from 15 years for 3G to 8 years for 5G, the paper added, saying that this reduction could be due to the fast-paced improvement in technology and growing market needs for mobile communications.
With this, the paper believes that the work on the definition of vision and development of technical standards can begin next year, while it expects the completion of 6G standard and earliest commercialisation to happen by 2028. It also expects a massive commercialization to occur around 2030.
In its concluding statement, Samsung Research said that while it is important to make sure that 5G achieves commercial success, it believed that this was the correct time to start preparing for the 6G mobile communications system.
Source: Commweek
