The emergence of 6G technology: growth opportunities for modern industry

The potential of 6G technology will become apparent as it has the inherent power to deliver an immersive smartphone experience. It opens up multiple opportunities, blurring the lines between physical and online platforms. In other words, 6G technology will create a collision of physical and virtual reality. Work and home will be deeply connected, and people will move around freely for social interactions. The latest data shows that the global 6G market will achieve a financial value of approximately US$1.04 billion in 2028. The industry is expected to reach approximately US$40.99 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of 150.4%.

6G network: lack of agreement but huge market potential

Currently, there are no standards for 6G networks, as there is still much work to be done in terms of power consumption and wireless signal transmission. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States has set 95 GHz and 3 THz for initial research and development (R&D).

The latest research shows that the University of Oulu in Finland has launched the 6Genesis research project to establish a 6G vision for 2030. The institution has decided to cooperate with the Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium of Japan on the Finnish 6G flagship 6G network research.

In addition, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) of South Korea is experimenting with terahertz frequency bands for 6G. In contrast, Samsung plans to invest more than $355 billion in chipset manufacturing to promote the advancement of 6G architecture.

6G technology: a powerful cluster of networks

The commercialization of 6G technology may take another decade as there is still a lot of work to be done. Experts must think about the technical challenges of providing higher speeds, greater storage capacity and lower latency than 5G networks.

Since the 6G network will trigger the convergence of existing technologies, it will be a multi-interface network. According to Phil Solis, the application of 6G network will surpass the market due to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in WiFi 6. It is a technology that supports uplink and downlink communication with multiple clients with the help of numerous resource units (RUs).

According to Paolo Gargini, experts are talking about a hybrid application of 6G technologies, but infrastructure changes will be required. For example, fiber optic broadband connections will need to be installed to limit signal losses during data transmission at terahertz (THz) frequencies.

There is another way to increase data transmission rates and control resource consumption. Japanese telecommunications company NTT's 6G work includes progress and testing of mobile networks that utilize an end-to-end optical communication architecture called Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN). The network cluster uses photons for fast data transmission without converting data into electrical signals. NTT aims to improve power consumption, end-to-end latency, and transmission capacity by 100 times compared to traditional methods.

Spirent Douglas said 6G technology will promote the convergence of WiFi and cellular technologies. There can be any software under the 6G network, but if there is standardized interoperability, users will not have any problems. Nevertheless, the vision of 6G and any standardized approach is likely to change before its widespread commercial use.

Potential applications of 6G technology

6G network will change the world due to its wide range of applications. According to experts, its various use cases are as follows:

• In the telecommunications industry, 6G networks will introduce multi-sensory technologies to establish new ways of social connection and interact with the environment through all five senses. This means that 6G networks will eliminate physical and time-related limitations through holographic imaging and simplifying the connection between people and machines. Almost all networks will be driven by artificial intelligence, promoting complete digitalization.
• According to Andreas Roessler, terahertz communications (THz), joint communications and sensing (JCAS), artificial intelligence and machine learning, reconfigurable smart surfaces (RIS) and visible light communications (VLC) are all types of advances that will transform the 6G era. JCAS will improve communications through efficient beam management, alignment and feedback. It will enable new applications – for example, gesture recognition, vulnerable road user detection and human-machine interaction.
• 6G networks will include ultra-wideband, low latency, high intelligence, and spatialization. These factors will facilitate better communication and allow for immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity holograms, and digital replicas without any limitations. Therefore, 6G networks will be built keeping in mind cloud storage for efficient reprogrammability.
• A strong driver behind 6G networks is the upcoming deployment of connected robotic and autonomous systems (CRAS), including efficient drone delivery, self-driving cars, and autonomous robots. CRAS requires latency requirements driven by control systems and the potential need for enhanced mobile broadband (EMBB) delivery of high-definition (HD) maps. CRAS is a top use case that requires stringent standards within latency limits; this does not exist in 5G.
• According to the latest research, authentication solutions will be extremely important for 6G mesh networks. This means that the availability of fast data transmission will allow experts to effectively communicate with each other and detect fraud immediately. In this way, it will allow fast local and cross-border communication, enabling law enforcement agencies to conduct effective criminal investigations.

Conclusion

The need for large-scale development and intelligent networks is an important factor in the growth of the global 6G market. Polese said that the arrival of 6G technology will solve the problems of 5G networks. The introduction of 6G with higher frequencies for fast data transmission is very attractive to universities and industries. According to Jornet, 6G will make enough progress to make the progress obvious. Therefore, it will guide the further development and finalization of standards.