What breakthrough applications will 6G technology bring to users?

Recently, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - the United Nations' specialized organization for information and communications technology - announced a framework for developing standards and radio interface technologies for the sixth generation of mobile communications (6G).

Accordingly, the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) will now focus on defining the technical requirements needed for potential 6G air interface technologies.

In this regard, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said: “Mobile communications are at the heart of our efforts to ensure that everyone in the world is connected. By adopting the next path for 6G technology, ITU member states have taken an important step to ensure that any technological advancement is accompanied by affordability, enhanced security and resilience, supporting sustainable development and accelerating the global digital transformation.”

What is 6G?

6G is the next generation of mobile networks after 5G, and more specifically after 5G Advanced. 5G Advanced is based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 18 standard. Release 18 is expected to be finalized in mid-2024 and available for practical applications in 2025.

5G Advanced will include major improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR) that will enable extremely intelligent network solutions that can support more use cases than ever before.

6G network technology currently has no clear definition and has not been approved by international organizations to become official mobile technology. However, many countries and organizations around the world have planned to invest and research this new technology.

6 breakthrough applications that 6G technology is expected to bring to users in the future

The ITU-R Recommendation represents significant progress in the development and implementation of globally accepted standards for 6G mobile systems. Standards applicable to both previous generations of mobile communications from the first generation (1G) to the latest generation (5G) are standardized through ITU before being commercially deployed worldwide.

“Land mobile communication systems developed under the IMT-2030 framework (i.e., the standard for 6G technologies) are expected to drive the next wave of innovation in radio communication systems, promoting digital equity and global connectivity. The publication of the Recommendation on future 6G mobile technologies is a testament to ITU’s long-term multi-stakeholder approach, ensuring the development of globally accepted regulations and techniques,” said Mario Maniewicz, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau.

For the next phase of 6G development, companies and associations in the telecommunications industry will submit proposals on the IMT-2030 Radio Interface Technology (RIT) for consideration by ITU-R in early 2027.

IMT-2030 is also expected to help address the need to enhance environmental, social and economic sustainability, while supporting the goals of the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Here are six groundbreaking application scenarios expected to apply to 6G technology in the future, including:

1. Role-playing communication:This is an extension of the 5G enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) scenario, providing users with rich interactive (immersive) video experiences and interactions with machine interfaces. New requirements compared to 5G eMBB are typical use cases such as extended reality (XR) communication, holographic communication, etc. In immersive communication, supporting mixed traffic of video, audio and data in a time-synchronized manner is an indispensable part. Some immersive communication use cases require high reliability, low latency support for fast, accurate interaction with objects and larger system capacity for simultaneous connection of multiple devices.

2. Low latency and extremely reliable communication:It is a type of mobile communication designed to meet stringent real-time and highly reliable requirements. It is used in applications where delayed or unreliable data transmission can lead to serious consequences. It is also an extension of 5G's Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) application. This application is applied in autonomous vehicles, remote surgery, and in smart industry including interaction with robots, emergency services, and monitoring of power transmission and distribution.

3. Bulk machine communication:It is a type of mobile communication designed to connect millions or even billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors. It is used in applications where many small, low-power devices need to be connected to the network. It is an extension of 5G's massive machine-type communications (mMTC). Typical use cases for this scenario include extensions to smart cities, transportation, logistics, healthcare, energy, environmental monitoring, agriculture, and many other fields. Such scenarios need to support high connection density, variable data rate requirements, low power consumption, mobility, wide coverage, and high reliability and security.

4. Connect anywhere:This application aims to enhance connectivity to bridge the digital divide, which can be enhanced through interaction with other systems. The focus of this application scenario is to address areas that are currently unserved or underserved, such as rural, remote and sparsely populated areas. Extensive use of IoT devices and applications in smart cities, intelligent transportation systems and areas such as health, agriculture, energy and environmental monitoring.

5. Integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and communication:This application supports distributed computing and AI-driven applications. Typical use cases include 6G-enabled autonomous driving, autonomous coordination between medical application devices, offloading heavy computation on devices and networks, digital twin creation and prediction, 6G-enabled interactive robots, etc. Scenarios that require support for high traffic, low latency, and high reliability.

6. Integrated Sensor and Communications (ISAC):Sensor as a network service will become a reality, providing more choices for the market and promoting related industries. Use cases such as ambient imaging, mapping, gesture and activity recognition, target detection and tracking, security monitoring and navigation, and even social welfare such as disaster monitoring can all be supported by 6G. This makes ISAC an attractive application scenario.

In terms of spectrum for 6G (IMT-2030), the ITU said that multiple bands will be required to meet capacity and coverage requirements, from frequencies below 1 GHz to bands above 100 GHz. The organization is currently developing a report on the technical feasibility of mobile technology in the above 92 GHz band.

6G mobile networks promise to digitize and connect the world by providing higher data transmission speeds, lower latency, and greater reliability than previous generations of mobile networks.

Currently, many countries in the world are ready to research and deploy 6G network technology such as the US, France, Germany, the UK, South Korea, China, Japan, Finland, Singapore and Europe. In addition, many telecommunications equipment manufacturing corporations and major mobile operators in the world are also accelerating technology development to gain an advantage in determining 6G network standards. The race to develop 6G mobile networks has also been launched with big names in the technology field such as Samsung, LG of Korea, Huawei of China, ...

With its outstanding potential, 6G is expected to create a revolution in many areas of social life.