Research and development efforts are already underway around the world to explore what future 6G systems will consist of, from candidate spectrum bands to potential features such as collaborative communications and sensing and intelligent reconfigurable surfaces. The focus is on.
6G is also expected to herald a significant increase in usage, as Chris Sambor, AT&T’s vice president of technology, said in remarks today at the Brooklyn 6G Summit. “We’re told we should be able to increase network usage by up to 10 times,” he said. Considering that overall wireless and wired network backbone traffic has increased by about the same amount compared to traditional, this is not unrealistic for wireless networks alone. 10 years ago. “That makes you sweat a little bit. … You’re going to need creative and innovative solutions to deal with that.”
He added that 5G has already led to a significant increase in usage, with the average data usage for a three- to four-hour period at AT&T Stadium being about 21 terabits. (Samber said the previous record data event at a U.S. stadium was a Taylor Swift concert, which used 29 terabits.)
However, carriers are concerned about the economics of 6G.
“To be completely honest and transparent, the industry needs to know what 6G will bring us, what customers want from 6G, and frankly, how much it will cost us. I am wondering if it will take,” Sambar continued. “I don’t want it to come across as negative or cynical, but to give you an example, if you buy a spectrum band at auction and put it into a network, that amount is in the mid-single digits of billions of dollars.” It will be.” [of cost]. A single spectrum band will cost between $6 billion and $8 billion and will be installed in most towers across the country. Not even a single tower,” he explained. New spectrum bands, particularly those wider than 40 megahertz, he said, will require not only new radios and antenna installations, but also cabling work, enhanced baseband processing in towers, and stronger transport links. And it hasn’t even started, he said. There will be costs to rebuild existing spectrum and upgrade equipment from LTE to 5G, for example, but this will eventually happen.
“Investment appears to be at a trough in the wireless industry right now, which has a lot to do with it,” Sambar said. “We’re getting a little weary of the economics of the industry.” He said the telecom industry is “healthy and vibrant,” including operator revenues, but at the same time, “capital investment has to be logical.” It must be done,” he said. We need to have a clear picture of what these capital investments represent for consumer use cases. ” He cited the example of all three major carriers. AT&T has spent $40 billion on spectrum over the past few years. Verizon spent over $50 billion. And T-Mobile US needed to acquire another major carrier to gain spectrum ownership. “It’s not going to be a bottomless industry,” he said, as 5G hasn’t even reached the halfway point yet and the industry is already trying to figure out how much it will have to spend on 6G. .
That said, Sambar said he is excited about 6G’s potential to enable augmented virtual reality immersive experiences for training public safety and military personnel, and for network operators to make “hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.” We also discussed the potential for better network-centric AI and ML that can save you “dollars.” If only we could do things like network self-optimization better and faster. That in itself is a big challenge. Sambar said he works with AT&T’s wired and wireless networks to perform “hundreds of The company said it has thousands of employees in network operations between “Things” algorithms. . If one of these algorithms breaks, he said, “you have to find out where it is, what server it’s on, what’s wrong with it, and how can you fix it.” Ta. “I want a machine that will manage it for me,” or better yet, stitch together the capabilities of multiple algorithms so that he can more efficiently and effectively apply AI/ML to network operations. It is to do.
