Industry leaders talk about the 6G vision: the smart connection of all things, the digital twin

2022.03.23

As the construction of 5G networks accelerates, related applications are beginning to blossom everywhere, reaching a wide range of industries. In line with the development rhythm of the mobile communication industry of "use one generation, build one generation and develop one generation", the global industry has started to explore and research the next generation of mobile communication (6G).

 

Recently, the Future Mobile Communications Forum hosted the Global 6G Technology Conference, aiming to build a global technology cooperation platform and a bridge for collaborative innovation, form recommendations to promote 6G research and development, promote the cultivation of a globally consistent 6G concept, work together to create a good environment for global 6G development, and contribute to the formation of a global unified 6G standard and the sustainable development of the information The conference will contribute to the formation of a global unified 6G standard and the sustainable development of the information and communications industry.

 

On the first day, a forum on "6G Vision and Technology Needs", chaired by Wang Zhiqin, Vice President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, featured scholars and experts from industry, academia, research and application to discuss how 6G will change the world.

 

Beyond communication: endogenous intelligence and security, external sensing and experience

Zhang Ping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said 4G will change life, 5G will change society and 6G will change the world. "6G will lead to a ubiquitous and simple network where people, machines and things are fully connected, where reality is combined with reality, and where wisdom emerges." 6G and the simplest wireless network will strongly support the digital twin, which will further provide continuous autonomous endogenous optimisation for the evolution of the simplest network.

 

According to Xu Wei, a professor at Southeast University, the future development trend of 6G technology is to provide wider coverage in more frequency bands, wider bandwidth and deeper dimensions, ultimately achieving faster rates, more stable transmission, and a more dual-carbon, intelligent fusion of smart networks.

 

Cui Chunfeng, Director of the Green Communication Research Centre of the China Academy of Mobile Communications, highlighted the vision of 6G as a "digital twin and smart ubiquitous". He pointed out that typical use cases for 6G include holographic interaction, digital twin, connectivity, intelligent transportation, smart production and meta-universe, etc. These use cases place higher demands on 6G networks: firstly, extreme capabilities, secondly, software-defined distributed networks, thirdly, full domain coverage, fourthly, smart ubiquity and fifthly, endogenous security. "For operators, we want to achieve a digital twin operation, zero-touch, automated O&M network that reduces costs while improving efficiency and is 'self-perpetuating and self-evolving'."

 

Wang Qingyang, Director of the Institute of Mobile Communications of the China Academy of Telecommunications Research, said that the future IMT2030 is a new system of endogenous intelligence and security, outward sensing and experience, building a new type of intelligent interconnection of people, machines and things, and an engine for the harmonious development of human society and the natural environment. Therefore, the innovation and development of 6G technology should be based on the basic principle of green energy saving, improving the energy efficiency of the system and implementing ecological operation; at the same time, it should also consider how 6G technology can empower thousands of industries, help deepen the digital transformation of various industries and achieve green and low-carbon development.

 

Changing the world: everything is connected, the digital twin

Wang Jun, a technical expert at Huawei's Wireless Technology Lab, said that 6G will further develop capabilities beyond communications, expanding the two major application scenarios of artificial intelligence and communications awareness on top of the three major application scenarios of 5G. As to how 6G will integrate the physical and digital worlds, Wang Jun introduced: from the physical world to the digital world is a typical downward channel, where AI capabilities such as deep learning, machine learning and big data analysis are delivered to users through immersive experiences such as AR/VR; from the physical world to the digital world is a typical upward channel, where full-scene sensing and machine-learning-oriented big data collection are mainly applied to enhance the digital The 6G will be a key bridge in this process by integrating connectivity, perception and AI capabilities.

 

According to Sun Bo, senior expert in wireless technology at ZTE, 6G will provide full-service capabilities, including ultra-high performance, service awareness, intelligent interaction, agile automation and global coverage, to build a network that intelligently connects everything. Through the gradual evolution of 5G to Advanced to 6G, mobile communications will continue to improve computing and storage capabilities, thereby enhancing services such as endogenous AI, endogenous perception and content security, while also providing better energy efficiency and transcending the current ICT system deployment and application boundaries to serve more markets and verticals.

 

Howie Xu, Head of R&D at Qualcomm China, pointed out that the question of how to define the scope of 6G technology and 5G technology is a very important one. Some of the 6G technologies that are mostly being discussed now are also being discussed in 5G, such as artificial intelligence, massive antennas, expansion to higher spectrum, millimetre wave, etc. As to what kind of technologies should be left to 6G development and what kind of technologies need to be developed in the 5G phase, from Qualcomm's perspective, as long as they can be applied in the 5G range now, they will continue to advance in 5G Advanced and draw lessons from the current experiments and applications to provide guidance for the future direction of 6G research.

 

Qin Fei, Director of Vivo's Institute of Communications, said that Vivo defines 6G requirements as "3+3+N", i.e. "3 key enablers, 3 types of terminals and N types of IoT". The "3 key enablers" include service capabilities for converged computing, strong sensing and interaction capabilities, and a superb communication system; the "3 types of terminals" are XR, smart robots and smartphones; and the "N types of IoT The "N class IoT" includes a wide variety of sensors, "is to make our world a better digital all".

 

Sun Chengjun, senior director of Samsung Electronics, said that in the 6G era, the number of connected machines will grow and is expected to be equivalent to 60 times the world's total population. Machines have a higher resolution relative to humans, so there is a higher demand for data transmission rates. Samsung's 6G vision is thus to provide a higher-order connectivity experience for humans and machines, including immersive XR services, as well as high-fidelity and digital twin services.

 

In the final roundtable discussion, Wang pointed out that all sectors of industry, academia, research and application are continuously refining each dimension to define 6G, and are also actively looking for key potential technologies that can support 6G development. The current 6G vision of "everything connected, digital twin" has basically formed an industry consensus, which focuses more on intelligence and sensing technologies on top of the traditional connectivity indicators. In addition, green, energy-saving, trustworthy and secure technologies, as well as computing power and storage, are also common concerns in the industry.