Digital transformation accelerates the arrival of the 6G era

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) has been celebrated every year on May 17 since 1969, and this year's theme is "Accelerating digital transformation in challenging times".

At present, 5G is developing strongly, but 4G is still the mainstream, and 6G has also entered the pre-research stage. The download speed of 5G network is about 10 times that of 4G/LTE network, and the network delay time is also greatly reduced. But 6G will raise the standard even higher, with an expected speed of 100 times that of 5G, and will also bring consumers an unprecedented connection experience by increasing bandwidth. From 3G to 4G to 5G, each generation of communication technology iteration has experienced a development cycle of about 10 years. Analysts believe that it will take at least ten years before 6G arrives.

So, what is 6G? And why are we talking about it now?

What is 6G?

As the name implies, 6G is the sixth generation of mobile communication standards, also known as the sixth generation of mobile communication technology. Before the 6G standard is released, it is not clear what form it will take, but it is not too early to predict the technologies it will use and the features it will have. Looking at the overall situation, the vision of 6G is to deepen the connection and integration of the digital, physical and human worlds, but this new generation of technology is still immature in many aspects.

It’s clear that 6G will benefit from the backend changes that mobile networks have undergone to enable 5G. A number of technology trends that accompanied 5G, including virtualized networks, are being “prepared” to enable specialized deployments. Operators have increased the number of antennas to increase radio network density. Today, it’s easy to get a network signal, especially indoors. And cloud technology and edge computing allow data of all sizes to be processed closer to the user, greatly reducing latency. 6G will build on this foundation and introduce new capabilities that go far beyond the limits of 5G.

How is 6G different from 5G?

The most obvious difference is speed. Compared with 5G, 6G will use more advanced wireless equipment and the capacity and diversity of airwaves will far exceed 5G, such as the use of extremely high frequency (EHF) spectrum that can provide ultra-high speeds and huge capacity over short distances.

In terms of coverage, 6G has the potential to be global. 6G satellite technology and smart surfaces that can reflect electromagnetic signals will deliver low-latency, multi-gigabit connections, which will be particularly transformative for areas of the world that are difficult or too expensive to reach with traditional mobile networks. 6G has the potential to connect all remote areas of the world, the sky, and the ocean.

5G has achieved remarkable results in AI optimization, dynamic resource allocation and data processing, but with extremely low latency of less than 1 millisecond and distributed architecture, 6G will be able to achieve global integrated intelligence. 6G will also be more efficient than 5G and consume less power. Energy efficiency is critical to the sustainability of the mobile industry as the amount of data generated has shown a foreseeable increase.

The transformation of next generation mobile network technology

Throughout history, each upgrade in wireless technology (3G to 4G, 4G to 5G) has required significant infrastructure investments and the rebuilding of various custom systems.

Kaniz Mahdi, senior vice president of technology at VMware, said: "We can't transition to a new generation of networks overnight. We need to add new technologies while gradually replacing the previous generation of technologies, and solve other derivative problems at the same time, so that we can smoothly transition to the next generation of networks. For example, we are now introducing 5G as a capacity expansion technology for LTE networks, while solving various problems of time-sensitive communications in the lab."

Preparing for the next telecommunications revolution years in advance is nothing new. While it’s still early in the process and many details have yet to be worked out, we do know what it will take for 6G to be successful:

• Openness: We need to move beyond vertical ecosystems to horizontal platforms that fully separate functionality from the underlying hardware and software. Parts of the end-to-end system must be provided by multiple industries, suppliers, and vendors.
• Cloud-native applications and infrastructure: We need to move away from reliance on single network functions and systems and instead embrace containerized microservices from the IT industry, viewing the network as a flexible pool of resources that can be freely assembled and reassembled.
• Automation: We need to build the foundation for the use of machine intelligence in planning, design, and operations, which will help create self-organizing, self-healing, and self-optimizing systems.

Future Network Outlook

Faster speeds, greater capacity, and lower latency:

• Free applications from the limitations of local processing power
• Connect more devices to your network
• Blurring the lines between the physical, human and digital worlds

Existing services will be transformed, and 6G may finally deliver use cases that are only described in science fiction. Terabyte speeds will surely make streaming smoother and video calls better. Global coverage and more connected things will change the way we interact with technology and even the world itself. 6G will also bring location- and context-aware digital services and sensory experiences, such as truly immersive extended reality (XR) and high-definition holograms. Unlike today's video conferencing, users will talk to others in real time in virtual reality (VR) through wearable sensors, which will give the feeling of being in the same room with others. Because 6G is more energy-efficient than 5G and even allows low-power IoT devices to be charged through the network, this will change the economic benefits of large-scale deployment and promote sustainable development.

The road to 6G

The fully realized 5G connected world is expected to be an ecosystem of interconnected intelligent components, systems and structures that integrate cross-industry technologies from wireless, networking and cloud.

Kaniz Mahdi, senior vice president of technology at VMware, said: "VMware will build a bridge between these industries that are somewhat different from each other and unify cross-domain technologies. While maintaining their respective differences, they will maximize interoperability. This will bring sustainable win-win results."

The fundamental changes made to achieve 5G unification are also paving the way for 6G:

• Enable data center virtualization: We need to be able to scale, federate, and optimize heterogeneous resources across multiple physical data centers managed by different vendors in different geographies and treat them as a unified pool of adaptable computing power.
• Achieve network virtualization: Next, we need to be able to adjust, federate, and optimize heterogeneous networks to enable distributed applications across multiple regions and multiple vendors, making the underlying network invisible to the application.
• Virtualize the edge: We need to be able to scale, federate and optimize heterogeneous platforms across multiple geographies and vendors to enable an interchangeable edge that can continuously optimize itself to maintain quality of experience (QoE) across a variety of highly interactive, highly mobile and distributed applications.
• Enable control virtualization: Finally, we need to be able to scale, federate, and optimize heterogeneous entities, enabling collaborative control applications across multiple intelligent agents across multiple vendors and geographies, ultimately achieving full autonomy through fully virtualized control.

The technology is still in its early stages of development, and the time to market will depend on the speed of advancement and the consensus reached on the final standards of the technology. Just as 4G and 5G will coexist and share the same core network for a period of time, 6G is also likely to exist at the same time as 5G. Mahdi said: "Hopefully, by the time we can confidently say, 'Yes, I have delivered on the promise of 5G,' spatial computing, the evolution from the edge all the way to the user device, and advances in robotics will be able to shape the new 6G landscape."

It can be said that from the moment the 5G standard was established and operators began to build networks, the door to 6G has slowly opened. 6G will move towards the terahertz era, achieving a seamless and fully connected world of heaven, earth, and people with faster speeds and wider coverage, further narrowing the digital divide, and the new scenarios it creates will completely bring humans into an era of natural connection. In order to welcome this era, visionaries need to prepare for 6G from now on.