US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Experts are discussing options for a new standard for mobile communications – 6G, which will combine industrial and domestic smart devices, and make cellular interactive television a reality. And satellite Internet will transfer the base stations into space, and we will permanently get rid of the wires.
The unifying beginning
The latest 5G mobile standard is being implemented pointwise in the most developed countries. Test sites are deployed in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Advanced communication technologies offer great advantages, and a serious fight has unfolded for 5G sales markets. The confrontation between the United States and China led to the arrest of the top manager of Huawei, a leader in the production of components for fifth-generation networks.
But they are already thinking about 6G. The International Telecommunication Union has called for the exchange of ideas on this subject.
A man with a smartphone. Archive photo
“6G is the development of the 5G standard. It will be more universal, relevant to the challenges facing society, will ensure the operation of mobile cellular television systems and the Internet of things,” says Sergey Makarov, professor at the Higher School of Applied Physics and Space Technology, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University Peter the Great (SPbPU).
Now we mainly use terrestrial and cable television, 6G will translate all this into mobile communications.
“Cellular television will become a serious competitor. Regional television companies will be able to create their own television content, and this is a very serious step forward from the point of view of business and the development of interactive television technologies,” the scientist explains. A new type of television will be tested in the 5G test zones, although this requires serious financial costs and legal study.
The next generation of mobile communications will lead to a revolutionary breakthrough – combine industrial and consumer Internet of things.
“Now these are isolated islands that function separately. In the future, there will be cars, trains, planes, spacecraft, household appliances in one network. You need to reach a huge number of manufacturers and offer them a convenient unified communications standard,” Makarov said.
All this cannot be realized without free frequency bands, and very few of them remain. 5G and 6G use the millimeter range, including terahertz – transition to infrared, this will speed up the transfer of large amounts of information (more than one terabit per second), reduce delays, reduce the size of base stations. But the radius of action of such honeycombs will be reduced.
“The higher we go in frequencies from gigahertz to terahertz, the less distance we can cover. The terahertz range is used in squares, stadiums, train stations, trains. Where there are a lot of people and you need to provide traffic in a relatively small space. In 3G standards , 4G – 40-50 kilometers between base stations, it’s impractical to take high frequencies here, because then you need to install small stations, but often,” the expert notes.
He compares the situation with the shale revolution in the oil industry. The exhaustion of traditional deposits has led to the fact that the most inaccessible reserves have been extracted from the bowels of the earth. Also in mobile communications – you have to look for frequencies, come up with ways to use them more and more effectively.
Sixth Sense
A new generation of communications will be a step towards global Internet coverage of the entire planet, covering the most inaccessible regions, including outer space above the Earth. Satellite internet is already being tested. The British company OneWeb has launched part of a group of six hundred satellites; there are satellite clouds from the Starlink network owned by SpaceX Ilona Mask; the Sphere project is developing in Russia.
“This system, covering the whole world, will allow us to transfer base stations to space – to satellites. We will get rid of wires, ground infrastructure. If this works out, it will be very cool,” emphasizes Sergey Makarov.
So far, personal satellite Internet is very expensive: for example, the Iridium system. If it is possible to make this technology cheap and reliable, humanity will find a powerful environment for the Internet of things, the management of all electronics, television broadcasting, and communication.
“To do local systems for one country is yesterday. The whole world lives in a single information structure. We constantly receive new messages about events around the planet with a maximum of one hour delay. We no longer notice that the content is constantly increasing. The coronavirus epidemic is a prime example. Everything our communication, work, training, even treatment – the connection of patients with doctors – went to the Internet, a huge load fell on the providers, and they showed: look, it works. There was a little revolution, finally people realized how important reliable communication channels are,” the scientist concludes.
Peter Vetter of The Bell labs compared it with the sixth sense and even the nervous system that will help a person go beyond physical capabilities. However, the implementation of 6G is a matter of the future, it will take at least a dozen years before the necessary innovations appear and the standard is published.
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