Recently, some media broke the news: Huawei started 6G network research in its R&D center in Ottawa, Canada. 5G has not yet arrived, and 6G is already on its way.
Talking about 6G, some netizens may say: now even 5G is not used yet. Isn't it a bit too early to study 6G? In fact, it's not early at all, on March 9, 2018, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology said that China has begun to study 6G technology. Currently, research organizations in communication technology powerhouses - Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea - including China, have already started research on 6G networks.
The planning and development of communication technology standards precedes the implementation and popularization, and since 5G is about to enter the commercial field, it means that the development and discussion of 5G standards in various countries is about to come to an end. It also means that the 6G network standards are setting sail.
I. Ah~~6G, you have 1G more than 5G
6G technology refers to the sixth generation of mobile communication technology, and it may come much faster than people expect. From what I've found out so far, it will probably be commercially available between 2026 and 2030. Why is 6G technology coming so fast? Didn't it take almost a decade to go from 4G to 5G?
I was looking through a lecture by Tingjie Lu at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and he came up with this theory to help us understand generations of communications technology: Mobile communications technology has gone through 5 generations so far. Without exception, the odd-numbered generations (i.e., 1G, 3G, and 5G) have been characterized by revolutionary innovations. The subsequent even-numbered generations (i.e. 2G, 4G) are innovative services derived from the previous generation of mobile technology to achieve a capability optimization and refinement.
Following this pattern and then looking at 1G to 5G technologies, the lineage of their development is clear:
1G technology was the pioneer of mobile communications, and prior to that telephones were stationary - people answering their phones needed to be in a fixed location. 90% of the time the phone was in a fixed location. The 90's probably haven't seen a contact form like this one, "Phone 12345 to get a call from Mr. Wang in the communication room". So although the 1G era "Big Brother" was big and expensive (selling for tens of thousands of dollars, and that was in the 1990s), it finally allowed people to get out of the shackles and make phone calls anytime, anywhere.
Martin Kupa, an engineering technician at Motorola, invented the world's first civilian cell phone in 1973.
2G was the era of the feature phone - when cell phones began to be popularized at reduced prices. And on top of 1G, text messaging and GPRS were extended. But the main function of cell phones at that time was still to make calls.
3G technology is another revolutionary innovation, which makes high-speed data transfer a core feature of mobile terminals - for the first time, traffic is more important than SMS and calls. However, the popularity of 3G technology has had its ups and downs - the 3G technology standard was developed in 2000, but cell phones at that time were stuck in the feature phone era. 3G technology lacks killer applications. Many people even ridiculed 3G technology: surfing is the main function of the computer, with a cell phone while walking on the Internet is not "hit the pole, fell into the pit".
The turnaround happened in 2007. That was the year Steve Jobs released the iPhone, and the following year he launched the App Store, a third-party app store. Killer apps like Facebook and WeChat continued to emerge, and the mobile Internet wave began to sweep the world. Since then, there have been reports of people using their cell phones to surf the Internet and "hitting poles and falling into pits". But no one is questioning whether the mobile Internet is useful anymore.
4G networks are a step up from 3G networks, bringing higher speeds. This led to the emergence of short videos and mobile payments, which accelerated the development of the mobile Internet.
5G networks bring lower latency and higher capacity than 4G, in addition to "faster speeds". Before 5G, the Internet took nearly 50 years to solve the problem of connecting people to the Internet. In the 5G era, the main problem is the "Internet of Things", which allows us to connect all kinds of devices to the Internet, such as home appliances, automobiles, VR headsets, and so on, so that these devices can better serve the human race. The 5G technology will undoubtedly lead to a new wave of technological change.
According to the law, the 6G network will further optimize and improve the 5G network. At Mobile World Congress North America 2018, Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), proposed "3 key technologies" for 6G wireless services. "
The FCC's 6G wireless service is a new technology, and it's a great way to get a more specific outlook on 6G.
2. What is 6G better than 5G?
1, 6G will move towards the "Terahertz" era
"Terahertz" is "THz", "Terahertz" is "Terahertz", "Terahertz" is "Terahertz".
"Terahertz" is "THz", generally referred to as the frequency band between 300GHz and 3000GHz. This means that 6G wireless waves can carry more data volume - which means 6G networks will have faster internet speeds. We've all probably heard that 5G networks have a theoretical download bandwidth of 10Gbps, which is a hundred times faster than 4G networks. What about 6G, which has a download bandwidth of 1Tbps - a hundred times that of 5G and 10,000 times that of 4G?
Let's take a concrete example. It takes about 1 to 2 seconds to download an HD blockbuster on a 5G network, which is fast enough. But on a 6G network, it takes just 10 milliseconds, or 0.01 seconds, to complete the download. At this speed, you don't even need a warehouse hard disk anymore. Because there's really no difference in speed between reading data from your own hard drive and reading data from the internet.
Download speeds in the 5G and 6G eras don't seem to matter anymore. People don't even need the concept of downloading anymore - since the internet is so fast. Why do you need to put the data for movies and games on a local disk? Just put it on a cloud drive!
But "fast" is only the most superficial of 6G's features.
2. A truly global network
Take telemedicine as an example, there is a startup team that wants to develop a 5G ambulance project based on a 5G network. The ambulance is networked through the 5G network, and the emergency patients can start various examinations, remote diagnosis, and even remote surgery under the remote guidance of the doctor once they get on the bus. This will buy the most time to save the patient's life.
But what if the car is driving around without a 5G signal? The first step is to make sure that you have the right tools for the job, and that you have the right tools for the job, and that you have the right tools for the job. These problems need to be improved in the 6G era.
An expert suggests that the 6G network is the integration of terrestrial base stations and satellite communications to achieve true global coverage. Through the satellite to achieve seamless global coverage. So that patients in the old, young and poor areas can also enjoy the best medical resources.
In addition, the iteration of communications technology also follows a basic law: the higher the frequency of the signal, the smaller the coverage. 5G network to achieve the same signal coverage of 3, 4G will need to build more base stations. However, advances in base station technology can compensate for this drawback. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei introduced: Huawei 5G base station has been able to make a suitcase size, one person can complete the transportation and deployment work. This correspondingly reduces the pressure of the need for intensive deployment to achieve signal coverage.
According to this law, signal coverage in the 6G era will require more antennas. However, the antennas for 6G systems will be nano antennas, and these antennas will be widely deployed everywhere. This includes roadsides, villages, shopping centers and airports. Because of the extremely small size, the network coverage in the 6G era will instead be much better than in the 5G era. With the satellite communication network mentioned earlier, it can basically realize the global coverage "no dead angle".
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3, the real "Internet of Everything"
5G is the initial period of the "Internet of Things". Although the media has long proposed the concept of the "Internet of Everything". But the number of connections that 5G technology can provide is about 1 million connections/square kilometer - not enough in a densely populated metropolitan area. The real possibility of connecting every light bulb and remote-controlled car to the Internet will have to wait for the introduction of 6G, which has a much higher network capacity. 6G is said to have up to 1,000 times the capacity of a 5G base station.
These are just some of the scenarios and ideas that scientists have come up with - the real standards for 6G have not yet been specified. But the 6G purpose is certainly for optimization and refinement. So some of the problems that are currently present in the design of 5G are definitely going to be patched up in the 6G era.
Three, the brainchild of the 7G network
After the 6G is somewhat unfulfilled, let's look forward to the 7G. according to the previous theory, 7G should be a new revolution. So since 6G has already connected people, things, and computers, what else will 7G connect?
Some experts have already suggested that 7G will not only connect people, machines, and things closely, but also connect the fourth element - human consciousness. In fact, the essence of human existence is consciousness, the computer and things connected to consciousness. In the future, we may really be able to do "what you want" - with the idea of shopping, with the idea of doing interstellar tourism, or a virtual space of all the information, including the picture of the items, smell, temperature, humidity, light and other information are reproduced in front of your eyes. All the machines and devices will become an extension of your mind perception.
Musk's Neuralink launched its invasive brain machine this year, implanting electrodes into the human brain so that it can read human information commands. This kind of technology, which seems a bit creepy now, may become very mature and commonplace in the 7G era.
Of course, the 6G and 7G eras are still in the brainstorming stage. If you don't want to think about these things, it's good to live in the present and enjoy the fruits of 5G technology first. These brain-burning things are still left to the scientists to plan and implement just fine.