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Too Soon for 6G - Or Is It?
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TOO SOON FOR 6G – OR IS IT?
Maybe the best way to describe what one means with 6G is by explaining 5G first.
At the moment, many of us who are lucky enough to use 4G networks on a regular basis know that they provide us with very fast speeds and low latency. In fact, 4G networks are the reason we can use services such as Netflix or HBO almost flawlessly. Or watch YouTube videos without having to wait for them to load.
The minimum user rate speed for 4G LTE networks is 10Mbps, though sometimes users can already experience speeds of 100Mbps. With 5G networks, that minimum speed will be 100Mbps, with peak rates being much higher than that, according to Android Authority. That’s a 10x increase. Similarly, 5G latency hovers around 1 ms, compared to 10 ms with 4G LTE – this is one of the main factors that will enable true IoT to become commonplace. Low latency will also be a driver in the adoption of autonomous vehicles, advanced healthcare, and advanced and precise control of robots, among other future phenomena.
5G will also beat 4G in many other ways. From the user data rate to frequency support to bandwidth, 5G will be at least twice better in all of these than the current 4G. You can read more about 5G in this article we wrote.
However, 5G isn’t really widely used yet. Practically it is not available anywhere. Carriers in the US are expected to begin rolling out 5G in the first quarter of 2019, though a nationwide rollout is expected to take years. After the US, China, Japan, and South Korea will be among the other early adopters. Nevertheless, even among these early adopters, it will take several years for the full impact of 5G to be truly felt.
This brings us to 6G.
One would think it is still too early to be talking about it. But the truth is, some people are. In Finland, the University of Oulu, in cooperation with Aalto University, Business Oulu, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, and VTT, has recently launched the 6G Genesis Flagship. Part of a national research funding program, the objective is to increase the impact of Finnish research. According to the Academy of Finland, the objective of the different flagship programs is to “support future knowledge and know-how, […] help create solutions to societal challenges, develop new business opportunities, and contribute to sustainable growth.
This is where 6G comes into play. According to the program, current fundamental research is 10 to 15 years ahead of industrial standards. At the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona earlier this year, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri told CNBC that there will be a 6G in the future. He added that at Nokia Bell Labs they’ve already started imagining what it will look like, and what the use cases will be.
Nokia joins the University of Oulu in pushing for the theoretical development of this new technology. The university, in addition to the flagship program, is also starting to promote events around 6G.
According to the university, it held the 6G Wireless Summit, the first 6G mobile communications event of its kind. The event, which took place in Lapland, counted 287 participants from 28 different countries. As Professor Matti Latva-aho, the director of the 6G Flagship program, said, “The vision for 2030 is that our society is data-driven, enabled by near-instant, unlimited connectivity. […] We challenged all of the conference attendants, pressing them to consider this future world beyond 5G and the most essential aspects of 6G research — a decade in advance.”
According to Peter Vetter, Head of the Access Research at Nokia Bell Labs, 6G will be “a network not only enabling connectivity but the infrastructure will be used as a sensor that will infer state and meaning to augment humans and machines.”
The consensus among the participants of the event, however, was that 6G is still at least a decade away, and probably more. You can read more about the Summit on the University of Oulu’s website.
BOTTOM LINE
So yes, 5G is barely here. It, alone, will take years to gain widespread adoption. Nevertheless, that does not mean it is too early to begin thinking about 6G. On the one hand, the earlier we begin researching it, the earlier we may actually have something to talk about. And, on the other hand, projecting ourselves 10-20 years into the future and imagining what it will look like may be an important exercise in innovative thinking. Finland, at least, seems keen on practising this.
If you want to stay up to date with 6G Flagship’s program, be sure to check out their website, where you can already find more news, research papers, and events to follow: https://www.oulu.fi/6gflagship/
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