B5G and 6G Wireless Technology

- Overview

Driven by the rapid expansion of 5G technology, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), and expectations for 6G deployment, the communications industry is on the verge of massive growth. 

The communications industry is growing significantly, driven by growing demand for 5G technology and the need for high-speed, low-latency networks. The continued expansion of 5G, coupled with expectations for 6G deployment and the use of AI to revolutionize operations and customer experiences, is driving substantial growth within the industry. 

The telecommunications industry is experiencing significant growth, driven by widespread adoption of wireless networks and significant investments in infrastructure. As industries begin to adopt 5G networks in their workspaces, their efficiency and productivity are increasing. 

Additionally, AI is transforming the telecommunications industry by improving operational efficiency and customer experience, as well as managing data center needs.

- The Key Building Block of 5G

3GPP stands for Third Generation Partnership Project. 3GPP has previously defined specifications for third generation Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) and fourth generation long term evolution (LTE). ITU is the International Telecommunication Union. A network is said to be a 5G network if it can meet International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-2020 performance requirements. 

3GPP defines fifth-generation (5G) cellular technology in Release 15 to meet ITU's IMT-2020 performance requirements and to support various services related to usage scenarios such as enhanced Mobile broadband (eMBB), Ultra-reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC). 

Example 5G performance requirements are 20 Gbps peak data rate, 1 ms radio network latency, 10 Mbps/m² area throughput, and 1 million (low-rate) IoT devices per square kilometer. 

The key building blocks of 5G are the New Radio (NR) air interface, new radio and core network architecture, virtualization and automation technologies, and new equipment. These building blocks enable 5G to deliver targeted 5G services.

- Technology Development from 5G to Beyond Fifth-generation (B5G)

New developments in wireless communications are advancing rapidly. Although 5G has officially entered the commercial market not long ago, many designers are developing new 6G-related technologies.

5G technology has reached the transmission level with a peak rate of 10Gbps and a low latency of 1 millisecond. Because its bandwidth is greater than 4G, it can be connected to more smart devices at the same time. However, there are still technical limitations in the application of 5G. Therefore, B5G/6G is integrating wireless communication and satellite communication to achieve the goal of global seamless coverage and interconnection.

The application frequency bands of B5G/6G are in the range of 0.1~0.3THz and 0.1~10THz respectively. This frequency band is called the terahertz frequency band. 

Advantages of the terahertz band:

• Abundant Spectrum Resources
• The peak transmission speed reaches 100Gbps~1Tbps
• Indoor positioning accuracy reaches 10 cm/outdoor 1 meter
• Communication delay 0.1 ms
• Ultra high reliability
• The density of connected devices reaches more than 100 per cubic meter
• Since there is no space absorption loss problem in the terahertz frequency band, it has the advantages of fast transmission speed and long transmission distance. It can be applied to inter-satellite communication and can provide greater coverage.

Antenna technology is one of the key technologies developed for wireless communication, dealing with radio and light waves at terahertz frequencies. Millimeter and terahertz waves are attenuated by rain and absorbed by oxygen and water molecules, making them unsuitable for long-distance radio communications. This poses formidable challenges in the selection and processing of antenna materials and structures. 

- B5G Networks and Edge Intelligence

Beyond fifth-generation (B5G) networks, or so-called "6G," the next generation of wireless communication systems will fundamentally change the way society develops. 

Edge intelligence is emerging as a new concept with high potential to address new challenges in B5G networks by providing mobile edge computing and edge caching capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI) close to the end user. In the B5G network enabled by edge intelligence, edge resources are managed by artificial intelligence systems to provide powerful computing processing and massive data collection locally on the edge network. 

AI helps to obtain efficient resource scheduling strategies in complex environments with heterogeneous resources and a large number of devices, while meeting the ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability requirements of new applications such as autonomous vehicles, remote operations, and intelligent applications. Transportation systems, Industry 4.0, smart energy, e-health and AR/VR services. 

By integrating AI capabilities into the edge network, the radio network becomes service-aware and resource-aware, providing a complete understanding of the operating environment and the ability to dynamically adjust resource allocation/orchestration. 

However, despite the potential of edge intelligence, there are many challenges that need to be addressed in this new paradigm. So far, there has been limited research work on edge intelligence in B5G networks.

[University of Chicago]

- The 6G Systems

6G is the successor to 5G cellular technology. It's expected to be 100 times faster than 5G, with enhanced reliability and wider network coverage. 6G is expected to hit the market around 2030. 6G will be a fully integrated system that allows for instantaneous communications between devices, consumers, and the surrounding environment. It will provide: 

• Higher capacity
• Much lower latency
• A peak data rate of 1,000 gigabits/s
• Air latency less than 100 microseconds
• Improved network connectivity
• New communication experience with virtual existence and involvement anywhere

6G is expected to adopt unconventional communication networks to access several types of data and transmit them through conventional improved radio-frequency networks. 

The 6G ecosystem is expected to integrate WLANs to meet rising indoor access demands. 

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) launched a "Next G Alliance" in October 2020. The alliance consists of AT&T, Ericsson, Telus, Verizon, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Samsung, and others.  

Notes:

• A microsecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one millionth (0.000001 or 10−6 or 1⁄1,000,000) of a second. Its symbol is μs, sometimes simplified to us when Unicode is not available. A microsecond is equal to 1000 nanoseconds or 1⁄1,000 of a millisecond.
• 1 milliseconds (ms) is equal to 1×10^-3 seconds (s). Conversely, 1 seconds (s) is equal to 1000 milliseconds (ms).