Patent leads, my country's 6G layout is on the road
5G is still advancing, but the exploration of 6G has already begun.
"Nikkei Asian Review" recently reported that in terms of the number of 6G patent applications, China ranked first in the world with a proportion of 40.3%.
At the "6G Symposium in 2021—6G Vision Outlook" held a few days ago, Han Xia, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that 6G for commercial use in 2030 is still in the stage of vision demand research and concept formation, and 6G technology directions and solutions are still Under exploration.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will make every effort to promote 6G innovation and development, and make a forward-looking layout of 6G network technology reserves.
5G commercial is the foundation
Global 5G commercialization has entered the fast lane. According to statistics, the number of global 5G commercial networks has reached 176.
In the past two years of commercial use of 5G in my country, rapid progress has been made in network construction, user markets, integrated applications, and standard development.
my country has built the world's largest 5G network. As of August this year, a total of 1.037 million 5G base stations have been built, accounting for more than 70% of the world.
5G terminal users exceeded 400 million, making it the largest user group in the world.
Created tens of thousands of 5G application innovation cases, especially in the media, medical, transportation, education and other industries formed a batch of typical applications.
According to the ten-year development law of mobile communications, the time to start 6G research is ripe.
However, Han Xia emphasized that it is necessary to consolidate the foundation of 6G development with the successful commercial use of 5G.
Wen Ku, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Communications Standards Association, said that for the development of 6G, it is necessary to forwardly deploy 6G technology pre-research, and also to do a good job in 5G commercialization and 5G-A evolution to lay a solid foundation for 6G development.
Han Xia said that it is necessary to accurately grasp the relationship between 5G commercial promotion and 6G research layout, and promote their coordinated and mutually-promoting development.
It is necessary to fully promote 5G network deployment and large-scale applications to lay a good foundation for the development of 6G; it is also necessary to in-depth analyze and summarize the application directions that are difficult to meet with the existing 5G, gradually clarify the potential business scenarios of 6G, and guide the formation and improvement of 6G vision requirements.
Promote 6G innovation and development
How to promote 6G innovation and development?
Han Xia said that, on the one hand, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on potential key technologies of 6G.
Optimize the development layout of supporting industries such as chips and new materials to form a good situation for the coordinated development of upstream and downstream.
On the other hand, strengthen exchanges and cooperation among global 6G promotion organizations, various enterprises, universities and research institutes, and promote the formation of a globally unified 6G standard.
"For some of the 6G potential technology directions that are generally considered to be effective and valuable, in addition to theoretical research, industrialization-oriented research such as hardware test verification, development of test prototypes, and trial commercialization is also needed, and technical performance is tested through continuous practice." Wen Ku said.
Wang Zhiqin, leader of the IMT-2030 (6G) promotion team and vice president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that it is necessary to strengthen research on basic technologies and multidisciplinary technologies to achieve efficient use of low, medium and high frequency spectrum, and non-ground mobile communications such as satellites and high-altitude platforms. Network integration, and collaborative innovation with society and industry applications.
In particular, it is necessary to maintain a globally unified 6G international standard and avoid splitting of international standards.
The world's leading regions have begun the 6G technology research and development process, and experts expect to launch the first batch of 6G products and infrastructure in the next 10 years.
It is understood that South Korea established the "6G R&D Strategy Committee" in June this year to jointly promote 6G R&D with industry, academic research institutions and experts.
The European Commission is preparing a proposal for a strategic partnership for 6G smart networks and services in Europe, and conducting 6G-related research activities.
In June 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in conjunction with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology, established the IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group to actively promote 6G vision requirements research, key technology research and development, standard development, and international cooperation and exchanges.
The Promotion Group released the "6G Overall Vision and Potential Key Technologies" white paper in June this year, systematically expounding the overall 6G vision, application scenarios, and potential technology trends.
What 6G can bring
What can 6G bring?
Experts believe that the Internet of Everything in the 5G era will move towards the Intelligent Connection of Everything in the 6G era.
Han Xia said that in the future, 6G will greatly expand mobile communication network capabilities and service boundaries, continue to deepen the scope and fields of IoT applications, effectively serve intelligent production and life, and help build a beautiful society of "all things intelligently connected, digital twins".
"6G will increase the consciousness space, further expand the communication space, reshape the world through the intelligent interaction between the virtual world and the physical world, and serve the intelligently connected society of all things." said Zhang Ping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
Huang Yuhong, vice president of China Mobile Communications Research Institute, said that 6G will focus on the vision of "all things intelligently connected, digital twins", and will give birth to new business scenarios such as synesthesia interconnection, holographic communication, and digital twins.
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Wireless CTO Tong Wen believes that the future 6G will be like a huge distributed neural network, integrating communication, perception, computing and other capabilities. It will deeply integrate the physical world, biological world and digital world, and truly open up a whole world. A new era of "All Things Connected" that is perceived, connected and intelligent.
"The core vision of 6G is to realize the interconnection between intelligent bodies and build a communication network that includes the sharing of humans and intelligent machines. The 6G era will realize the integration of the six artificial intelligence resources of network, terminal, business, computing power, storage, and data. Provide an artificial intelligence platform for thousands of industries." said Yang Ning, director of the OPPO Research Institute's Standards Research Department.
(Economic Daily reporter Huang Xin)