How will future 6G networks cope with the demand for mobile data?

Ian Wong, director of RF and wireless architecture at Viavi Solutions, said future 6G systems should focus more on delivering new applications rather than just increasing the capacity of services already enabled by 4G and 5G.

While 5G is still a work in progress with many ongoing developments ahead, many stakeholders are already discussing and testing components and systems that will likely be incorporated into the next 6G.

At a high level, there is a disconnect between the projected capacity of 5G and the demand for data on mobile networks. Cellular networks face this fundamental problem for the foreseeable future, and 6G may be the solution to it at its core. But how?

Sarah LaSelva, director of 6G marketing at Keysight Technologies, noted that while 6G is still in its early stages and there are many unknowns, there are some high-level goals and technology trends that are possible.

Increasing network data capacity is possible, LaSelva said. Research is being done to understand how to use existing spectrum more efficiently, and at the same time, research is beginning to understand whether wireless communications can be pushed to higher frequencies, such as sub-terahertz and terahertz. However, 6G aims to do more than just expand the capacity of existing networks. 6G aims to be the ‘G’ that makes human life better by seamlessly integrating human-machine communications and machine-to-machine communications.”

Ian Wong, director of RF and wireless architecture at Viavi Solutions, said that future 6G systems should focus more on delivering new applications such as XR, AR and VR, as well as new applications in verticals, rather than just increasing the capacity of services that are already enabled by 4G and 5G networks. The focus should be more on delivering the services that are truly the most impactful…These are the things that really need to be more robust as we move into 6G. Over-emphasizing higher and higher data rates is not the right way to solve the problem. Of course, people will always crave more data, but this is data that is ubiquitous for consumer applications. There will be such a situation in 5G, especially as we move forward in the advanced stage of 5G. At that time, the focus should be on making verticals such as automotive more robust. These are the things that can really benefit society more broadly.

Meanwhile, Andreas Roessler, technical manager at Rohde & Schwartz, said that a key technical component being discussed for 6G is support for terahertz communications. He explained that the reason for this is that at these frequencies, wider bandwidths can be obtained, so data rates may reach 1 Tbps. Therefore, 6G will add additional frequency layers on top of the sub-8 GHz and millimeter wave frequencies supported by today's 5G networks. However, as with millimeter wave frequencies, path losses will increase. In addition, terahertz communications pose a challenge to today's semiconductor technology, requiring the design of RF front-ends and antenna systems that can provide sufficient output power and beamforming gain to overcome the high path losses encountered at these frequencies. Terahertz may further help solve the capacity crunch. However, only where it makes sense.

Hiroaki Sato of the 6G Infrastructure Group of Fujitsu's Future Society and Technology Department believes that the growing demand for mobile network data requires increasing wireless capacity, modifying network topology, and traffic control. He said that Fujitsu believes it is necessary to use high-frequency bands, such as high-frequency millimeter waves and terahertz waves, to increase the capacity of wireless access itself. It is also necessary to introduce edge computing in the edge field and reduce the traffic of backbone networks such as the Internet by implementing IT applications and content caching.

Danny Tseng, director of marketing at Qualcomm Technologies, said that capacity is one of the fundamental aspects of any wireless network and will continue to grow as more use cases, devices and deployments are unlocked. To increase the capacity of any wireless network, this can be achieved by increasing spectral efficiency or the amount of available spectrum.

Tseng explained that one example of opening up more spectrum is using higher frequency bands such as terahertz, which can open up a lot of capacity on the path to Tbps. While 6G research is still in its infancy and it is difficult to determine exactly how it will meet future capacity needs, we have a good idea of ​​how to move in the direction of meeting those needs. 6G will continue this evolution as 5G advanced technologies improve upon 5G.