6G is expected to be commercially available by 2030, revolutionizing connectivity with lightning-fast speeds, unprecedented bandwidths, and ultra-low latencies. It will transform various sectors, including telecommunications, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and entertainment.

Key objectives of 6G research include network bandwidths of 50-200Gbps with some research even considering 1Tbps, data throughputs of 300-500Mbps at each consumer device, area throughputs of 30-50Mbps per square meter, number of connected devices of 1 million to 100 million per square km, seamless transfers at speeds of 500-1,000km per hour, low latencies of 100µs to 1ms, and precise positioning with accuracies of 1-10cm.

Other objectives include high reliability, coverage, security, resilience, and interoperability.

6G objectives call for technical innovations at multiple levels, as follows.

Radio access network (RAN) innovations

Better efficiency, enhanced connectivity, and sustainability are sought through prospective new capabilities such as:

*New sub-terahertz frequencies for high-speed broadband: Sub-terahertz bands and their propagation characteristics are being researched to achieve data rates exceeding 100Gbps for use cases like holographic presence, extended reality, integrated access, and backhaul.

*Additional capacity: To boost network capacity, researchers are studying the 7-24GHz band. Additionally, the 460-604MHz band is being considered for extreme coverage.

*Novel network topologies: Technologies like non-terrestrial networks and the continued virtualization and cloudification of the RAN offer new ways to design networks.

*Artificial intelligence (AI): AI offers tools to enhance the optimization and management of networks, but can also be applied at the protocol and physical layers in order to improve RAN performance on a per-deployment basis.

*Advanced multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO): Advances like massive MIMO and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) are being researched to optimize use of the sub-6GHz spectrum.

efficient communications: Research initiatives are looking into energy savings in networks and devices as well as near-zero energy systems for sustainable operations.

*Full-duplex communication: Research is looking into full-duplex operation on each frequency channel to enhance throughput, reduce latency, and achieve flexible scheduling.

In addition, system architecture improvement research is looking at digital twins for simulation, analysis, reconfiguration, real-time management, and orchestration across physical networks and virtual services; non-terrestrial networks for provision of ubiquitous coverage using satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles in swarms; and network disaggregation, which separates network functions into distinct segments, enabling flexible integration, scalability, and vendor diversity.

6G distributed cloud aims to integrate computing and communication seamlessly across the entire network, from data centers to edge computing, enabling ubiquitous computing services and efficient resource orchestration, and mesh radio access networks (RANs) and sidelinks enable nodes to connect directly and non-hierarchically for improved resilience, scalability, and coverage.

Operational and service enablement innovations that will be needed, include ultra-reliable low-latency communication to enable applications and services that require very high reliability and extremely low latency where even minor delays or data losses are unacceptable – such as industrial automation, remote surgery, and autonomous vehicles.

Autonomy and automation will also be required. Operations, administration, and management (OA&M) functions must evolve toward closed-loop automation with self-configuration, healing, optimization, and protection.

And disaster readiness will be necessary. As the primary ubiquitous wireless technology, 6G networks must be resilient against natural disasters, cyberattacks, and terrorism. They must recover quickly post-disaster and restore critical services, expand exponentially to cope with increased demand during disasters, and function even if parts of the network are damaged.

But these new technologies present challenges, including

*Noise due to high bandwidth:The sub-THz bandwidths for 100+ Gbps throughputs result in more noise and reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). So SNR must be optimized at every stage using techniques like Flex Frame.

*High interference: The ubiquitous connectivity goals of 6G will result in high interference, which can lead to performance bottlenecks as well as high energy consumption.

*OA&M challenges: High reliability and resilience require continuous real-time backup of network data and configurations and the efficient integration of restored elements back into the network during recovery.

challenges: The ubiquitous nature of the network results in a drastically bigger attack surface.

By: DocMemory
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