Get ready for

upcoming 6G
wireless
A research group is exploring
5G’s ultimate replacement -
terahertz-based 6G wireless -
which could be in commercial
use within 10 years.

Current mobile wireless network

technology (4G), at frequencies
below a few gigahertz, provides
generally available average
downloads speeds at rates below
20Mbps.

Coinciding with a signing-off of global standardizations for the as-yet-unlaunched 5G radio

technology by 3GPP this month we get news of initial development plans for faster 6G wireless.
The Center for Converged Tera Hertz Communications and Sensing (ComSenTer) says it’s
investigating new radio technologies that will make up 6G.

One hundred gigabits-per-second speeds will be streamed to 6G users with very low latency, the
group says on its website.

For comparison, the telecommunications union ITU’s IMT-2020 has projected that 5G speeds,
when that tech is eventually launched, will come in at around 20Gbps. Much slower than 6G, in
other words. Those multi-gigabit 5G speeds, too, will most likely apply only to the still-in-testing
high-up millimeter frequencies that will come in a second- or further-tranche of 5G. The first
batch of lower-down-frequency-utilizing speeds will be slower still.

Terahertz frequency

“High frequencies, in the range of 100GHz to 1THz (terahertz),” will be used for 100Gbps 6G,
the ComSenTer scientists from University of Santa Barbara say in a release. For spectrum
comparison, Verizon’s initial 5G millimeter trials (along with Qualcomm and Novatel Wireless)
that are taking place now will only go as far up the spectrum as 39GHz.

Extreme densification of communications systems, enabling hundreds and even thousands of

simultaneous wireless connections” will be part of it, the researchers claim, “with 10 to 1,000
times higher capacity than the nearer-term 5G systems and network.”
Medical imaging, augmented reality and sensing for the Internet of Things (IoT) are some of the
applications the scientists say will be enhanced by faster-than-5G radios.

How terahertz 6G wireless will be accomplished

Spatial multiplexing will be an important part of the researchers' development thrust. That’s
where separate data signals are sent out in streams the bandwidth gets efficiently reused
continually. MIMO antennas, now in common use in Wi-Fi and in trials for 5G, for example, also
will be used. That’s a way to maximize antennas, taking advantage of multipath. Again, it adds
efficiency. Overall, terahertz should need less power and have more capacity.