At present, the construction of 5G networks around the world is in full swing, and its commercial value is still in the exploration and expansion stage, but the industry has eagerly launched 6G technology research, and some countries are even more anxious to "hug the group".
In late 2021, the Samsung American Research Center (SRA) applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to use 6G trial frequencies, which was approved.
In fact, since 2020, the United States has continuously strengthened technical cooperation with Europe, Japan, South Korea and other countries in the field of 6G through joint research and development, signing large-scale procurement contracts, etc., hoping to achieve "curve overtaking" in the 6G era, regain global dominance in the field of communications, and attempt to curb the development of China's 6G in the embryonic stage.
In the face of more fierce global competition than in the 5G era, how should China's 6G be laid out?
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1 The 6G era is coming quite fast
The continuous development of digital technology makes it possible to create a virtual digital world, and we will usher in a new world in which the real physical world and the virtual digital world are deeply integrated and everything is intelligently connected.
For example, the innovation of terminal equipment, touch screen input will become the past, through the new human-machine interface, people can even rely on brain sensors to manipulate machinery and equipment; such as the popularization of holographic communication and sensory interconnection, people will no longer be limited by time and space, to achieve multi-dimensional sensory integration response. In the cities of the future, smart sensors, intelligent robots, and driverless vehicles will collaborate and learn from each other to improve work efficiency and accuracy, and calmly respond to real-time changes.
On November 8, 2021, the concept of future 6G communication technology was presented at the 4th CIIE held in Shanghai. Pictured| China News Agency
To meet the needs of these future scenarios and realize the connection and integration of the physical world and the digital world, it is necessary for mobile communication networks to provide faster speeds, greater throughput, lower latency, more reliable stability, more intelligent scheduling, lower energy consumption and so on than 5G.
That's what 6G is trying to solve.
As the next generation of mobile communication technology, 6G will continue to break through the limitations of communication technology on the basis of undertaking 5G and promote the continuous progress of human society.
To surpass 5G in terms of speed and bandwidth, we must first solve the spectrum problem.
Wireless spectrum is the foundation for the development of mobile communications. Based on the low-band spectrum can achieve wide coverage of the economic characteristics, but also limited by the lack of bandwidth, in the past mobile communication centralized use of wireless spectrum is below 6GHz (gigahertz). In order to achieve breakthroughs in speed and bandwidth, 5G for the first time expanded mobile communication technology to the millimeter wave band of 24-50GHz, and began the pioneering journey of mobile communication technology in the high frequency band.
6G to achieve higher speeds and greater bandwidth than 5G, it can only advance into the higher frequency band than millimeter wave.
The industry generally regards the 100-10000GHz (or 0.1-10THz, terahertz) band as the most likely operating band for 6G. Compared with millimeter wave, the terahertz band has a higher frequency, a larger communication capacity, a high transmission rate, strong anti-interference ability, easy to achieve communication detection integration and other characteristics, is the only new frequency band to be developed in the electromagnetic spectrum, and the spectrum resources are extremely rich. The large bandwidth characteristics of the terahertz band are sufficient to support the ultra-high transmission rate and large transmission capacity required for 6G.
As early as 2020, the FCC opened the 95-3000 GHz frequency band as an experimental spectrum for 6G technology research and development. However, the terahertz band still needs to be fully explored. Based on the current technical capabilities, the effective coverage radius of the high-frequency terahertz base station networking is only about 10-50 meters, and breakthroughs need to be made at the wireless air interface technology level to solve the economic cost and physical networking problems of terahertz base station coverage.
2 Global competition, the curtain is raised
As a cutting-edge technology, 6G research work was first led by academia.
In 2018, the University of Oulu took the lead in launching the 6G flagship project "6Genesis - Wireless Intelligent Society and Ecosystem supporting 6G" with funding from the Finnish government, and organized the world's first 6G summit in March 2019 to release the world's first 6G white paper, which promoted the start of 6G research.
As the vision of 6G becomes clearer, in order to occupy the commanding heights in 6G research, governments have carried out strategic layouts for 6G research and development, and the United States is one of the first countries to rush.
On January 9, 2019, during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a viewer experienced a 6G virtual reality boxing game.
Because its 5G deployment is limited by frequency allocation and has more interference in the low frequency band below 6GHz that is commonly used internationally, the United States has turned to the commercial use of first millimeter waves (which has also led to the slow development of its 5G). Therefore, some US officials and experts also advocate skipping 5G and directly developing 6G. In September 2018, FCC officials looked ahead to 6G technology in public, proposing views such as "6G will use terahertz bands" and "6G base stations can reach 1,000 times the capacity of 5G base stations."
In May 2020, ATIS released the 6G Action Proposal, recommending that the government invest additional R&D funds in 6G core technology breakthroughs and encourage the government and enterprises to actively participate in the formulation of national spectrum policies. In August 2020, the Trump administration officially approved the 6G experiment. Subsequently, the FCC opened the 95-300GHz terahertz band as experimental spectrum and officially launched the research and development of 6G technology.
As the first country in the world to realize the commercial use of 5G, South Korea also carried out 6G research and development work earlier. In August 2020, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Communications (MSIT) of the Republic of Korea released the "Future Mobile Communication R&D Strategy Leading the 6G Era", planning to invest 200 billion won (about 168 million US dollars) in 6G technology research and development in five years, ensuring that South Korea will become the world's first 6G commercial country in 2028.
In order to compete with South Korea, Japan has also issued a 6G national strategy, preemptively released the "Outline and Roadmap of the 6G Technology Comprehensive Strategic Plan", and proposed to achieve 6G key technological breakthroughs in 2025, officially launch 6G networks in 2030, and master the share of 6G technology patents of more than 10%.
In addition to successively issuing a number of relevant strategies such as "Shaping Europe's Digital Future", "European New Industrial Strategy", "2030 Digital Guide" and so on, the EU has also adopted the overall strategic cooperation model of multiple countries to promote 6G research and development, taking an important step in gathering industry stakeholders and jointly promoting 6G.
In order to strengthen the 6G competitiveness of EU mobile communication technology and form a counterweight in the global 6G competition, Nokia led the 6G flagship project Hexa-X, planning to invest an overall of 80 billion euros to build an EU 6G technology development roadmap. Ericsson organizes participation in the EU REINDEER project, research on cellular-free MIMO technology, and is committed to making the EU a hub for 6G development, standardization and final deployment.
The mainland's 6G-related scientific research work also started relatively early. In June 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology led the establishment of the China IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, marking the official launch of 6G research and development in mainland China. The members of the promotion team mainly include three major operators, communication equipment manufacturers, universities and research institutions, etc., which jointly form the main platform for aggregating the strength of China's industry, education and research to promote China's 6G technology research and carry out international exchanges and cooperation.
In November of the same year, the Ministry of Science and Technology took the lead in establishing the National 6G Technology Research and Development Promotion Working Group and the Overall Expert Group. Among them, the promotion working group is composed of relevant government departments and is responsible for promoting the implementation of 6G technology research and development; the overall expert group is composed of 37 experts from universities, research institutes and enterprises, responsible for proposing 6G technology research layout suggestions and technical demonstrations, and providing advice and suggestions for major decisions.
3 Next G Alliance, 6G Cooperation "Little Circle"
For China, there are still many challenges to continue to maintain its leading position in the turbulent 6G competition, especially the planning and deployment of the United States in the field of 6G and technological progress.
As far as the technology itself is concerned, terahertz has become an important experimental frequency band for early research and development of 6G, and the United States began large-scale investment in terahertz technology research as early as the 1990s. In September 2020, the Terahertz and Perception Fusion Technology Research Center, a collaboration between more than 30 U.S. universities, launched research on wireless technology and terahertz chips. It can be said that the United States has a certain leading edge in the technical foundation, RF hardware and chips in the field of high-frequency wireless.
In terms of strategic deployment, the weak development of 5G has become a huge driving force for the United States to accelerate 6G research. In 2020, after the Trump administration officially approved the 6G experiment, ATIS established the Next G Alliance, a trade organization dedicated to the development of 6G in North America, in October of the same year. The strategic tasks of the alliance mainly include: establishing a 6G strategic roadmap, promoting 6G-related policies and budgets, and global promotion of 6G technologies and services, with the ultimate goal of establishing the leadership of the United States in the 6G era.
In order to expand its influence, in addition to the US information industry giants Qualcomm, Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, Google and communication operators AT&T, Verizon, Next G has also absorbed European communications manufacturers Ericsson, Nokia, South Korea's Samsung, LG, Japan's Sharp, NEC, DoCoMo, etc., and Taiwan's TSMC is also among them.
The Next G Alliance explicitly requires that organizations subject to export, re-export or transfer licensing requirements on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List are not eligible to participate in the Alliance, forming a "small circle" of 6G cooperation between them and their allies.
In October 2021, the Next G Alliance submitted a 6G roadmap proposal on the IMT-2030 Vision to ITU-R, the radiocommunication arm of the International Telecommunication Union, hoping to influence the development of future global standards for 6G. At the end of the same year, the Next G Alliance announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Korea 5G Forum and will deepen cooperation in discussing the development of a 6G roadmap, global standardization and spectrum, aiming to seek more international support for the 6G roadmap it has led.
And this is all to transform the advantages of the United States in terahertz technology into influence and dominance over global standards for 6G technology.
Affected by the SANCTIONS entity list of the US Department of Commerce, mainland high-tech enterprises, including Huawei and ZTE, are not only excluded by the Next G Alliance and do not have access to technical exchange opportunities, but also are strictly restricted in the import of related technologies and chips, which seriously affects the mainland's research and development progress in the field of high-frequency wireless technology.
4 Avoid path dependence and unite more forces
In the increasingly competitive 6G research track, in the face of the severe challenge of the United States chasing and blocking, if we still stay in the 5G experience and form a path dependence, we may miss the opportunity and be overtaken.
In June 2021, the Mainland IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group released the "6G Overall Vision and Potential Key Technologies White Paper", which still regards the new spectrum in the 6GHz and below bands as a strategic resource for 6G development.
From the perspective of considering future network construction, the IMT-2030 (6G) promotion group attaches importance to the low and medium frequency bands, which is reasonable. However, in order to meet the 6G demand for ultra-high-speed and ultra-large capacity spectrum, high-frequency band technology is inevitable. With the development of 5G standards to R16, R17, R18, the demand for high speed and large bandwidth in 5G applications will eventually be supported and realized by the middle and high frequency bands, and its technical value will be reflected to the greatest extent in vertical industry applications.
As 5G evolves to 6G, competition will increasingly focus on technological advantages and industrial value rather than the size of the network. In the face of the challenges of the United States' superiority in high-frequency technologies such as terahertz, we should have a sense of crisis, take action as soon as possible, and actively respond to the global competition for 6G research.
On the one hand, we will further expand our opening up to the outside world in the field of mobile communication market and technology research and development, especially to strengthen cooperation with EU enterprises.
In the global 5G industry chain, Qualcomm and Apple in the United States have formed a strong competitive advantage in the chip and terminal markets, but the field of communication equipment is mainly occupied by China's Huawei, ZTE and Europe's Ericsson and Nokia. Therefore, in the research and development of 6G, in addition to maintaining the traditional advantages, the United States must also compete for a place in radio frequency products, and Ericsson and Nokia in Europe are bound to be affected.
Formulating a unified 6G technology standard and creating a global market requires multi-party cooperation and the formation of a majority consensus, and there is a risk of being marginalized if it relies only on domestic forces.
Therefore, we need to unite more forces, both to consider the formation of transnational R&D alliances and to set up cross-border R&D projects to attract companies and research institutions, including EU companies. Through the close connection between technology and the market, it is possible to break the technical blockade in 6G research and achieve checks and balances in the process of formulating 6G standards.
On the other hand, relevant domestic communications enterprises should have a forward-looking awareness and crisis awareness, and have the courage to undertake the 6G mission.
Due to the accumulation of a large number of benefits in 5G patents and the market, premature and too quick to promote the evolution of technical standards to 6G will undoubtedly cause some damage to existing interests, so it is easy to fall into the path dependence of "evolutionary short-sightedness".
In April 2021, the Intellectual Property Development Research Center released the "Report on the Development of 6G Communication Technology Patents", showing that the number of 6G patent applications in China has increased rapidly in recent years, and the contribution rate in global patent applications has been the largest. However, among the top ten applicants in the world in terms of patent applications, Japan, the United States and South Korea all have three, and only the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (ranked eighth) in the mainland. From the perspective of Chinese patent applications, the top ten are also domestic universities and scientific research institutions.
Foreign companies have caught up and taken the lead in 6G, while the mainland's 6G innovation force is still dominated by universities and scientific research institutions. Domestic communications companies should still have a forward-looking awareness and crisis awareness, allocate 6G research and development from the current 5G revenue, carry out 6G research cooperation with the academic community, form a breakthrough in the field of high-frequency technology as soon as possible, and create a competitive advantage in 6G technology.
The global competition for 6G research is already unfolding at the national level, and in contrast, the top-level design of the 6G roadmap is relatively conservative in the mainland. At present, the "14th Five-Year Plan" Information and Communication Industry Development Plan formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology only takes "carrying out the research and development of 6G basic theory and key technologies" as the development goal of the next five years. Compared with other countries, China's future launch of 6G experimental networks and commercial networks may lag behind greatly. It is recommended to make corresponding adjustments as soon as possible to drive the domestic 6G industry to get rid of the path dependence on the success of 5G, promote domestic 6G research to achieve breakthroughs in high-frequency technologies and products such as terahertz, and start the 6G terahertz frequency band experiment in a timely manner.
Resources:
1. White Paper on the Overall Vision and Potential Key Technologies of 6G, IMT2030 (6G) Promotion Group;
2. 6G Communications White Paper, Nokia Bell Labs;
3. "6G Global Progress and Development Outlook White Paper", CCID Think Tank.