According to the historical development law of mobile communication technology in the tenth generation, while the development of 5G is in full swing, 6G is also on the agenda.  Recently, the US telecommunications operator AT&T is applying for a two-year experimental license with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to "demonstrate the functions and capabilities of 5G-A and 6G wireless systems" The news has once again aroused the industry's attention to 6G. .

6G will change the world

From the perspective of 6G development vision, Zhang Ping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, once said that 4G changes life, 5G changes society, and 6G will change the world.  The ubiquitous digital twin and wisdom in the 6G era will promote the combination of virtual and real, and the emergence of wisdom. 6G has expanded from land communication to land, sea, and air.  According to Xin Pengjun, editor-in-chief of the Communication Industry Network, the biggest goal of 6G is to build a digital twin world. At present, the 6G play method is still the operation of the traditional trajectory in the past. Under the current new technology conditions, there may be subversive changes or the operation mode needs to be innovated urgently.

Liu Yunjie, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, director and chief scientist of Zijinshan Laboratory, said that promoting 6G research needs to focus on the needs and goals of 6G networks. The development of holographic communication, AR/VR, metaverse and other services has put forward a series of new requirements and challenges for the network, and the future network facing 6G will have great prospects.

From the perspective of the 6G development path, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is conducting research on 6G technology trends and 6G vision, which are expected to be completed in June 2022 and June 2023, respectively. The research on 6G technical performance requirements and evaluation methods will be completed between 2024 and 2027, and the 6G candidate spectrum will be discussed at the WRC23 meeting. It will enter the 3GPP international standard formulation stage around 2025, and it is expected to complete the standard formulation and evaluation in 2030.

"6G will synchronously expand wireless coverage with high speed, low latency, high reliability and high density. It faces huge challenges and needs to consider multi-band converged coverage technology; the next 3-5 years will be a strategic window for breakthroughs in 6G key technologies. The industry is continuing to explore the development process and path of 6G," said Huang Yuhong, president of China Mobile Research Institute.

Xin Pengjun, editor-in-chief of the Communication Industry News, said that communication iteration and standard formulation are one of the important logics for the development of the communication industry, and there are no exceptions at home and abroad. At present, the focus is still on the definition of 6G. Behind the definitions and standards are the interests of the industry, including operators and equipment vendors. Among them, operators see low cost, and equipment vendors see it as a big market, both of which are their own commercial interests. Standards are an industry game process. Often, the big structure is determined first, and then the deep application is determined. It is a long process. For example, many standards of 5G have not been completely frozen.

All parties in the industry have deployed

At present, all parties in the industry are actively studying 6G. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of my country, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, has established an IMT-2030 (6G) promotion group to guide the industry. The promotion group is the main platform to gather the strength of my country's industry, university and research, promote China's 6G research and carry out international exchanges and cooperation, and has released the "6G Overall Vision and Potential Key Technology White Paper" in June 2021. The EU launched Hexa-X, a flagship project for 6G research, in 2021. The Japanese government has planned to establish a research fund totaling more than 50 billion yen for 6G research and industrialization to fund 6G technology research and the development and deployment of related test facilities. Japan has also established 6G research cooperation plans with the United States and Finland respectively, and plans to develop 6G core technologies in 2026 and start 6G commercial deployment in 2030. The South Korean government also plans to invest 200 billion won in 6G research and industrialization between 2021 and 2026, with the goal of starting non-standard 6G prototype deployments in 2026 and commercial 6G deployments between 2028 and 2030. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the "Future Network Act" in December 2021, requiring the FCC to establish a "6G Task Force" to coordinate industry, standardization organizations, and federal and state governments to promote the development of 6G technology.

In addition, the global mobile communication industry, including leading operators and technology companies, have launched 6G technology research, and have released 6G research white papers or research reports.

"AT&T, the US telecom operator, is applying for a two-year experimental license from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which shows that US operators are also accelerating the deployment of 6G. Currently, from a global perspective, major countries are carrying out 6G pre-research. It is mainly about scenario definition, technical route and spectrum recommendations. The Chinese industry has always been at the forefront in this regard." Xin Pengjun said.

6G is in the early stage of research, and the risk of standard splitting needs to be prevented

Although 6G has a bright future, it is still in the early stage and faces many doubts. Santiago Tenorio, director of network strategy at Vodafone Group, said in an interview: "No one needs 6G. The industry should make 6G a 'non-G' (a no-G. It means 'no 6G after 5G')."

Zhou Guijun, editor-in-chief of C114 Communication Network, said that 6G is still in a very early stage, and there is no difference in technology evolution paths at home and abroad. As for unified standards, whether there is a unified standard is a question. Because of geopolitics, 6G is indeed facing a standard split. The risk, of course, that the industry does not want to see.

According to Yang Guang, a senior analyst at SA, from the perspective of industry development rules, 6G is actually still early, and it is still in the discussion stage of application scenarios and market demands, and a broad industry consensus has not yet been reached. The real standard setting may be 3-4 years later. But on the other hand, affected by factors such as technological competition among major countries, the topic of 6G is indeed overheated. Not only the United States, but also major countries or regions in the world have paid great attention to 6G, so it seems that there is a suspicion of being ahead of time. , But in fact, when it is not very clear what 6G is, it is difficult to say what is advanced and what is useless.

"6G research should focus on 6G top-level design and architecture research, focus on green, safe and sustainable development, and focus on cross-border integration and innovation, and take global unified standards as the common effort of the global industry." Huang Yuhong suggested.

It can be seen that 6G is still in the early research stage. At present, the most important thing should be to find the real market demand through the commercial practice of 5G, and at the same time, through the close integration of production, education and research, to determine the feasible technical route, which requires time and patience.