Historically, with the beginning of the new decade, a new generation of mobile communication information has emerged. In the 1920s (although 5G has not been fully implemented yet), information about the sixth generation mobile communication - 6G has emerged. Welcome to everyone who wants to know the future of wireless network in the "far away".

Speed of the sixth generation network

With the development of MIMO technology and access to millimeter wave band, 5G will stay here as we know today. Obviously, millimeter wavelength will still be the key solution to realize the function of the next generation network. At present, the 6G network concept has been developed, which is expected to be faster, more intelligent and more convenient than the fifth generation network. Let's analyze the advantages of the 6G network compared with the previous generation network?

The main difference will be that the data transmission rate will be greatly improved - up to 1Tb/s, 1000 times faster than the 5G data transmission rate. The improvement of transmission speed will make the signal delay more strict, up to one thousandth of a millisecond.

Technical solutions for 6G networks

The "growth point" of data rate in wireless networks has long been found and proved. Mainly focused on MIMO technology. If you can now hear about solutions like Massive MIMO, then in 6G, we are talking about the so-called holographic MIMO. We will introduce holographic MIMO technology in another article. Now, the only thing to mention is the new method of data transmission, which lies in the influence of beam shape of radiation mode.

In terms of bandwidth, the trend is the same, moving to a higher spectrum. Now there is no technical problem in the 30, 40 and 50GHz millimeter wave bands. In the next 20 years, this range will be expanded to 700 or 800 GHz.

In addition to expanding the spectrum, work needs to be done to make better use of the spectrum below 6GHz. The recent conversion of the 6GHz frequency band to the unlicensed frequency band is an evidence.

In order to create high-speed networks, more use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is required. The intelligent network can manage itself, and the management efficiency is far higher than the current mobile network. Another part of the spectrum in the 3.6 GHz band will be used to exchange "signal" traffic. This band will be used to control and self regulate the wireless network. Because of this method, the capacity of the network will be greatly expanded.

The intelligent network will also enable the 6G network to transition more smoothly to the network without cells. At present, the mobile network is covered by hundreds of cells - honeycomb cells scattered in a region, as shown in the figure below.

With the emergence of 5G network, each cell is equipped with a MIMO array to provide services for users in the cell. However, the 6G network involves the installation of a large number of access points in a cell, which breaks away from the common understanding of cells and makes it possible to develop a cell free network.

In such a system, there will be no cell boundary, so when users move in the city, there will be no switching between cells. The whole city will be a big cell. All people using mobile services in cities will receive "content" through multiple access points running under one network.

Although all this sounds daunting from the perspective of traditional mobile networks, it is worth considering that the devices in smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) systems have already run in a similar way on local wireless networks.

The concept of cell free network means the development of hundreds of interconnection devices. It is this multi device local connection that is the starting point for the development of the sixth generation cellular free network.