Experts believe 6G will change the world because cloud-based technology makes greater speeds and microsecond latency possible. The upcoming generation is here:
5G deployment is already well underway, and this year will likely see more than a billion 5G connections. But even as the world begins to understand the promise of new network capabilities, 6G is already being investigated.
Although 6G is still in its infancy, analysts believe it will offer greater frequency bands and adaptable cloud-based networking technologies to deliver previously unheard-of speeds up to 100x faster than 5G, as well as microsecond latency.
The 5G Infrastructure Association claims that 6G would deliver “a near-instant and unconstrained total wireless connectivity,” with the technology expected to fundamentally alter how businesses conduct business. And if forecasts hold true, this game-changing technology, which might support innovations like automatic vehicles and smart home networks, might become a reality within the next six to ten years.
An Interconnected Network of networks: 6G
The use of edge and cloud infrastructure will be crucial in the deployment of future 6G networks since cutting-edge applications of tomorrow, such as the metaverse and extended reality, appear to require ever-increasing connectivity.
According to Ian Goetz, Global Lead – RAN Systems Architect 5G at Dell Technologies, “6G is evolving as an edge-centric technology that will combine terrestrial (cellular), spatial (satellite), air (UAV), and maritime communications into a single, highly dimensional “network of networks.”
The appropriate distribution of available CPU and network resources will determine the network service that is dynamically assigned to your cell phone (or IoT endpoint), he continues. “A fundamental benefit of leveraging cloud infrastructure in 6G is the flexibility to scale such network services up and down elastically.”
According to Tech Mahindra’s Manish Vyas, President of CME Business and CEO of Network Services, 6G will also provide the advantages that 5G already delivers, but with significantly higher performance.
“In Addition, 6G will enable intelligent, hyperconnected, decentralized, disaggregated, and highly secure networks with exceptionally high capacity and all-pervasive coverage. To support a capacity of up to 1 terabit per second, 6G will utilize additional frequency bands, mostly in the mmWave GHz and sub-THz range, with wider bandwidth access,” Vyas added. Additionally, open ecosystems and interfaces as well as AI-native design will serve as the foundation for 6G, according to Vyas.
This indicates that 6G networks will be able to access more complex AI capabilities and improved support for high-end mobile devices than 5G networks.
Problems with the switch to 6G
“Over the next few years, issues like ‘Is 5G enough?’ will come up. ‘ or ‘Are 6G or higher data rates truly necessary, and if so, for what use cases? Shamik Mishra, CTO of Connectivity and Vice President at Capgemini Engineering, said that they “will still be there.” “As more things—including businesses, homes, ports, and vehicles—become mobile connected to the internet, wireless technology must advance to become more effective in terms of price, energy use, spectrum, and operations,” he continues.
According to Volker Ziegler, Senior Technology Advisor, and Chief Architect at Nokia, 6G will be cloud-native from the outset, with scalability and interoperability as the two most important factors. Because they were created separately, communication and computing systems have been a barrier to this shift. However, he continues, “We see an opportunity to permit increased interaction across these systems.” “To combine these essential components, new architecture designs for 6G are required. These designs must be adaptable enough to enable services that may be used on various distributed cloud platforms, whether they are private or public, edge, core, or on-premise,” he added.
“One of the main factors in the construction of Nokia’s 6G networks has been the increased focus on security that working with enormous volumes of data necessitates. To ensure that network platforms in the 6G future are appropriately secured, we have done an extensive study. Microservices are continuously monitored, and platform and workload integrity are protected both at boot and while running. We are also investigating if cryptographic components are secure for the approaching quantum computing era in the 2030s,” assures Volker.
Networking Reimagined
According to Vyas, future applications for 6G will include holographic communications, a tactile internet, intelligent network management, and the convergence of networking and computers.
It’s difficult to forecast what 6G will look like, but based on what we’ve learned from 5G and open RAN networks, he continues, “we know 6G is going to be AI-based, highly intelligent, and fully integrated, with ultra-low latency systems and massive ecosystems using open interfaces.”
Additionally, Mishra predicts that 6G networks would make extensive use of machine learning (ML) as mobile networks get bigger and more complicated. According to him, “6G will scale AI/ML to improve radio/network architecture, network management, orchestration, and resource management.” “Through real-time data consumption, edge computing/AI-driven apps in combination with the sensor network will enable various new intelligent industry use cases.”
The reality-defying demands of 6G necessitate a re-evaluation of what a cellular network looks like, according to Goetz. The traditional ‘cell’ architecture, which had previously served as the basic unit of design for cellular and is, in fact, the ‘cell’ in cellular, was one of the first things we performed. The architecture of 6G will be “cell-free,” meaning that there won’t be any cell or cell boundaries.
“A scale-out, the elastic cloud platform is connected to a large number of distributed radios, which is the core concept of cell-free. With 6G, the entire network can adapt to the size that is required to best serve the user, whether that size is large or little. It develops into a more dynamic network.
Ensure a smooth transition with the new network infrastructure
When the network is used as a platform, Mishra says, “we can expect unique use cases.” The novel traffic patterns, new data rate requirements, greater uplink rates, machine-to-machine connections, etc. that these use cases will bring. All of this will influence the development of 6G wireless radio technology and the architecture of the network.
According to Ziegler, “the 6G network architecture will be built on combining diverse network functions in cloud environments, leveraging the growth of AI in all domains, using new types of sub-networks, and improving ways of providing data and services to third parties.” Data, communication, and computing are essential features that 6G systems must provide to enable and, most crucially, the scale for use cases involving automation, artificial intelligence (AI), the metaverse, digital twins, and other technologies across several significant industries.
In the end, he says, “we need to recognize that the change to 6G is evolutionary, as it has already started with 5G opening the way for truly cloud-native networks.”
“At Nokia, we chose four essential characteristics to describe cloud-nativeness. Since containers are easier to deploy and upgrade than huge monolithic programs, we anticipate seeing compact, stateless microservices architecture operating in containers.
We also anticipate settings that may be deployed anywhere and are independent of infrastructure and clouds. We will be able to get rid of hardware requirements thanks to abstraction. Finally, everything will revolve around DevOps for automation and a quicker time to market.
According to Goetz, who anticipates a shift from “connected things” to “connected intelligence,” the transition from 5G to 6G will necessitate extensive edge cloud infrastructure.
To realize intelligent connections between people, devices, and resources, he says, “we understand that when we talk about linked intelligence, we are going beyond customized communication.”
Goetz says, “It is anticipated that in the 6G age, we will be able to interact through high-fidelity extended/mixed reality (XR/MR) interaction, and even holographic communication.” For users to enjoy fully immersive holographic experiences like virtual sports, virtual travel, and virtual games anytime, anywhere, XR must fully mobilize the senses of sight, touch, hearing, and smell.
“Edge cloud infrastructure is essential to realizing these experiences.”
