October 3, 2023
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A new 6G network is under construction. Can they destroy the Dead Zone for good?
Next-generation 6G technology could ‘enable applications we can’t even imagine today’
These 5G cell towers only serve about 10% of the planet. Next-generation 6G networks have the potential to expand their coverage.
High-speed Internet access is critical in a world where school, business, personal, and emergency communications are increasingly conducted through handheld devices. However, a surprisingly large area of the United States still lacks fast enough broadband or cell phone connectivity. One potential solution is sixth-generation cellular networks, which experts say would add space-based systems to ground-based coverage options. His 6G network could eventually connect the entire country to high-speed data, but its development is still in its early stages.
Activities such as participating in video conferences and streaming high-definition video may require download speeds of 25 megabits per second. But in 2019, these speeds were out of reach for 4.4% of Americans, according to the latest survey. broadband progress report From the Federal Communications Commission. Lack of access to reliable internet is roughly four to five times higher in rural areas (17 percent) and tribal lands (21 percent), disproportionately impacting already underserved communities This is contributing to the digital divide.
This summer, the federal government took steps to increase connectivity by expanding existing broadband infrastructure. In late June, the Biden administration made a $42.45 billion commitment to the Broadband Equity Access Deployment (BEAD) program, a federal effort to provide reliable, high-speed internet access to all U.S. residents. Announced. Although the project focuses on broadband connectivity, some researchers have suggested that stronger mobile phone connections could eventually circumvent the need for wired internet.
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6G networks are in the early stages of development, so it’s not even clear yet how fast they will be. The United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines each new generation of wireless technology as having a specific range of upload and download speeds. These standards have not yet been set for his 6G, and ITU probably plans to do so late next year. However, industry experts predict that it will be 10 to 1,000 times faster than the current 5G network. It accomplishes this by using radio waves with a higher frequency than traditional ones. This provides faster connections with less network latency.
No matter how fast the new network turns out to be, it will enable future technologies, according to Lingjia Liu, a leading 6G researcher and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech. It is said that there is a possibility. “Wi-Fi provides great service, but 6G is designed to accommodate increasingly remote workers and provide even better service than home routers, especially in terms of latency. ”he says Liu. This could lead to a wave of new applications that are unfathomable at today’s network speeds. For example, mobile phones could act as routers, allowing self-driving cars to communicate with each other almost instantly, and mobile devices could become completely hands-free. “6G speeds will enable applications we can’t even imagine today. The industry’s goal is to be ready with global response and support when those applications arrive.” says Liu.
While 6G’s theoretical speeds sound appealing, previous 5G networks also claimed to offer super-fast connections. However, people in many parts of the world still lack access to 5G infrastructure. Even devices designed to take advantage of 5G must include the ability to fall back to 4G and 3G connectivity when slower networks are the only option available. “5G cellular networks currently only cover about 10% of the Earth’s surface,” said Jeffrey Andrews, director of 6G@UT. 6G@UT is a research center at the University of Texas at Austin working on the fundamental technologies that support 6G mobile phones. Network of the near future. Andrews said that coverage could change dramatically in the 6G era, as the new generation will be partially space-based and will be able to cover much more of the Earth than its ground-based predecessors. He said there is. “I think leveraging space systems to provide global coverage will be a revolutionary aspect of the 6G era,” Andrews says.
Current 6G research and development efforts are focused on building non-terrestrial networks consisting of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. These networks are expected to be able to operate at a fraction of the cost of 5G, which relies primarily on terrestrial fiber-optic cables and cell phone towers. By piggybacking on the LEO constellation already under development, 6G will be able to offer cheaper connectivity than 5G, Andrews said, but 5G will not be able to reach much of the country, including in relatively sparsely populated areas. Laying optical fiber takes time and money.
These sparsely populated areas are the primary targets of the BEAD program. So, if BEAD connects entire countries to existing broadband networks, will 6G global coverage be necessary? Investment in BEAD is a step toward bridging the digital divide, but some experts has doubts about that possibility. BEAD allocates funding to U.S. states and territories based on the FCC’s broadband maps, which have faced intense scrutiny from the communications industry due to various inaccuracies. One of the previous versions of the map was challenged with over 4 million locations.
Alexis Schlubbe, Director of the Internet Equity Initiative at the University of Chicago Data Science Institute cannot be taken lightly.” “This map is probably the most compromised data product the federal government has ever created.” This makes its flaws so significant. Schlubbe said the algorithms used to determine where broadband was available in this map often made mistakes when analyzing Native American lands and rural areas. These places are perfect examples of where more connectivity is desperately needed.
The FCC continues to develop a broadband map to better understand where coverage needs are, but the problem with this map is that 6G will ultimately allow all devices in the United States to be connected faster and more quickly. This means that you may be able to connect at a lower cost. Schlubbe sees the two technologies as complementary. “They work in conjunction with each other,” she says. “It’s not necessarily that one is competing with the other. Rather, a better distributed transportation system across the United States would pave the way for those technologies to flourish further.”
Harish Viswanathan, head of wireless systems research at Nokia Bell Labs, says another way 6G will improve over previous generations is in the way it uses artificial intelligence. “I think we’ll see a lot more applications of AI in 6G than what we’re aiming for in 5G,” Viswanathan predicts. AI not only helps save energy on existing networks by analyzing data usage in real-time, but also plays a key role in the speed of data processing and uploading. “Machine learning, especially deep learning, also known as artificial intelligence, has made great strides in other areas as well,” Viswanathan says. “These tools now concern us in wireless communications.”
Sixth generation communications technology may hold revolutionary promise, but it won’t replace existing networks for some time. ITU estimated earlier this year that 6G will be available to consumers in 2030.
