The International Telecommunication Union, a part of the United Nations, says 6G has the potential to power a range of advancements, make communications more immersive and make connectivity universal.
However, existing communication technologies have reached their theoretical bandwidth limits and there are several major problems that must be overcome.
These include the difficulty of increasing capacity, high coverage costs and high energy consumption.
The usual approach to overcome these constraints is to pile on more resources to improve the performance of the communication network, but this also significantly increases the network complexity.
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China built six times as many 5G towers in three months as the US did in two years
China built six times as many 5G towers in three months as the US did in two years
Presenting his team’s findings at a conference in Beijing on Wednesday, Zhang Ping, a professor at the university, said breaking new ground in the field requires technology to shift from “accumulated innovation” to “disruptive innovation”.
In this case, the innovation was the application of an emerging technology called “semantic communication,” an intelligent system that conveys meaning rather than just data. Researchers believe that this technology has the potential to make transmission systems more efficient and reduce the costs of information processing.
According to a report by Xinhua, the Chinese team’s experimental network showed that semantic communication can achieve 6G transmission capabilities over existing 4G infrastructure.
Zhang said the deep integration of communications and intelligence is an “important direction” in the evolution of communications technology.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the China Academy of Communications Research, he was reported to have said that artificial intelligence will transform communications and that 6G will also promote the rapid development of AI.
“AI will improve communication recognition and semantic understanding, while 6G ubiquitous communications will expand the scope of artificial intelligence to every corner of every field,” Zhang was quoted as saying.
“The combination of the two companies will accelerate the creation of new business models in the digital economy.”
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Chinese lab realizes 6G mobile transmission technology 10 to 20 times faster than 5G
Chinese lab realizes 6G mobile transmission technology 10 to 20 times faster than 5G
In February, the United States and nine other countries laid out a set of principles, including that 6G communications systems be developed with “trusted technology that protects national security.”
Japan is partnering with companies such as NTT Docomo and Sony to establish key technologies around 2025 and plan to start offering communications services “beyond 5G” by 2030.
