The global 6G battle has quietly kicked off

Recently, at China Mobile’s 2021 Science and Technology Workers’ Day and Technology Week, China Mobile Group Chief Expert Liu Guangyi explained China Mobile’s application basic research and 6G layout. "Today, 5G innovation has entered the'deep water zone', 6G research has entered the'no man's land', and multi-disciplinary frontiers have entered the'convergence period'. China Mobile Research Institute will continue to promote the further implementation of 5G concepts and continue to seek breakthroughs in 6G innovations to cope with many Challenges." Liu Guangyi preached.

Four major initiatives
Realize the development layout of applied basic research
Nowadays, the development of the global information and communication industry is facing challenges. 5G innovation has entered the "deep water zone", 6G research has entered the "no man's land", and the multidisciplinary frontier has entered the "convergence period". Facing new situations, it is necessary to lay a solid foundation to achieve breakthroughs. China Mobile Research Institute has implemented four major measures to realize the deployment of applied basic research. It has continuously improved the science and technology innovation system, strengthened applied basic research, and strengthened industry-university-research cooperation in four major areas: deepening field layout, innovating cooperation models, improving systems and mechanisms, and stimulating talent vitality.

In order to strengthen applied basic research, China Mobile established the Future Research Institute. "Introduced by Liu Guangyi, China Mobile Future Research Institute has clearly positioned itself as a researcher in basic core theories and original technologies, a leader in forward-looking research in key areas, and an important resource integrator in the field of future research. It will create future information and communication and related interdisciplinary integration technologies. High-end technology think tanks guide the direction of technological development.



The three main directions of the Future Research Institute are future information and communication technologies (including 6G, next-generation Internet/optical networks/AI/security/business and other fields), interdisciplinary integration technologies (including brain-inspired intelligence, life sciences, quantum information, and new technologies). Materials, new energy and energy conservation fields), humanities (including analysis of the impact of technological progress on society, forward-looking technology laws and regulations and policy recommendations). China Mobile Research Institute will continue to innovate cooperation models, build a "new highland" of scientific research with in-depth integration of industry, university and research, form a university innovation consortium, strengthen cooperation with scientific research institutions, and establish frontier cross funds.

The global 6G battle
The curtain has started
Entering 2021, 5G will be commercialized on a large scale, and 6G research will be actively launched globally.

Looking at the world, China started to study 6G in 2018, and established IMT-2030, 6G technology research and development promotion group in 2019, China Mobile, vivo, Datang, etc. released 6G white papers, Huawei, China Mobile, etc. jointly initiated the establishment of 6G network architecture forum 6G ANA. Japan has formed a number of innovation alliances and proposed a goal of 30% of the global share of 6G infrastructure. It is currently in the R&D start-up stage.



The United States established Next G Alliance to promote 6G leadership. The United States and Japan established an alliance to jointly invest US$4.5 billion in 6G research. The EU proposed a relatively clear planning roadmap to complete the 6G industry-university-research framework project in the third quarter of 2020. South Korea will spend 200 billion won to develop 6G from next year, and plans to launch it for commercial use as early as 2028. In the ITU, Ericsson and Samsung proposed to complete the 6G standard in 2028.

Judging from the current development situation of various countries, competition in 6G technology, standards and industries will become more intense in the future.

The United States proposes to overtake on 6G corners to enhance global leadership. The United States is increasing investment in the 6G field, hoping to "leapfrog development" to surpass China's advantages in the 5G field; the Ministry of Defense DARPA has launched a number of 6G projects such as terahertz communication and sensor technology fusion research; the FCC opened the terahertz test in 2018 Spectrum.

The Finnish 6G flagship project promotes 6G research and international cooperation. In 2018-2026, 250 million euros will be invested; the global 6G summit is held once a year, which has been held twice; 12 white papers have been released.

China has initiated 6G research simultaneously with the world, comprehensively deployed, established the IMT-2030 promotion group, the 6G technology research and development promotion working group and the overall expert group; China Mobile released the "2030+ Vision and Demand Report".


Europe takes technological innovation as the lead, increases the scale of R&D investment, and releases the strategic document "The Cornerstone of a Comprehensive Industrial Strategy"; plans to establish an EU 6G partnership project in 2021Q1; the European Horizon project achieves technological breakthroughs such as 6G. Japan has released a B5G promotion strategy, vying for the world's first place. It aims to complete 6G basic technology research by 2025 and commercialize it in 2030; increase the global market share of 6G infrastructure to about 30%; and 6G patents share more than 10%.

Japanese companies can make use of the upstream advantages of integrated circuits and materials in 6G R&D; NTT released the "Smart World 2020 Technical Report".

The South Korean government puts forward the goal of "leading the commercialization of 6G" and plans to achieve the world's first 6G commercialization in 2028, striving to achieve the world's first 6G core standard patent, the world's first smartphone market share, and the world's second device market share; MSIT project Support to ensure the leading position in the field of mobile communications; LG, Samsung and other companies establish 6G research centers; Samsung releases 6G white papers.

In terms of standards, global international organizations are formulating a 6G work plan roadmap. The completion time of the ITU-R 6G standard is still under debate. There are currently two views, one is to complete in 2028, and the second is to complete in 2030.




China Mobile believes that 6G work is mainly divided into two stages. The first stage (2018-2025) is the 6G vision demand research, the 6G potential key technology research, and the 6G conceptual system design. The second stage (2025-2030) is 6G standard formulation, industry promotion, commercial use and application cultivation.

China Mobile 6G Research
Already influential
In order to initially build a deep integration of industry-university-research-application innovation system, China Mobile Research Institute is responsible for the overall end-to-end top-level design and some key technologies, and cooperates with universities to carry out research and verification of basic theories and key technologies.

Liu Guangyi shared some basic research and judgments of China Mobile on 6G. In terms of vision, “digital twins and smart ubiquity” have basically become the consensus of the industry’s vision, although there are differences in descriptions; in terms of frequency, frequencies below 10 GHz are the basis, millimeter wave frequency bands will play a more important role, and THz and visible light will play a more important role. Scene as a supplement.



Wireless transmission technology expects more theoretical breakthroughs, and scenario-based optimization will be an important direction; air-space-ground integration networking is the trend, and satellite networks are an important supplement to terrestrial networks; wireless and core networks will be further simplified and integrated, and the boundaries will be even greater. Ambiguous; 6G will no longer only provide communication functions. Perception and AI will become a new service and capability. The integration of perception-communication-computing will be a general trend; endogenous intelligence and endogenous security will be the future network Important feature: Network automation based on digital twins is the key to reducing future network operation and maintenance costs.

The 6G research of China Mobile Research Institute is now influential at home and abroad. The industry has taken the lead in publishing 3 white papers on vision requirements, technology trends and network architecture prospects; served in domestic and foreign industry organizations such as IMT-2030, CCSA, NGMN, ITU and IETF Multiple leadership positions, leading the 6G project, essentially leading the 6G discussion, gradually forming domestic and foreign influence, and building a 6G cooperation ecosystem around China Mobile; presided over the 6G forum and delivered more than 10 keynote speeches at the IEEE top academic conference, which was initially established The image of China Mobile's leading operator.



"6G should be down-to-earth and look up to the stars." Liu Guangyi preached. China Mobile Research Institute will continue to promote the further implementation of the 5G concept, build a user-centric network, realize servitization, cloudification, and network slicing. It will also continue to seek breakthroughs in 6G innovation to deal with various challenges, such as capacity approaching Shannon’s limit. Moore's Law is close to the limit, and the scene needs are more extreme and more diverse. "Future global cooperation is the key to 6G success." Liu Guangyi concluded.

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