We’ve seen 3G, 4G, and now 5G rolling out, at least in the developed world.  Some random stats:

• About a third of North American mobile traffic is via 5G
• 95% of Singapore is covered by 5G
• By 2026, 90% of South Korean mobile traffic will be 5G
• 90% of Germany is covered by 5G

Etcetera.  5G is a success.

So naturally people are think about 6G.

Of course, it doesn’t exist yet.  To quote Wikipedia: “As of 2023, there is no universally-accepted government or non-government standard for what qualifies as 6G technology and it is still in the early stage of development.”

But here’s some wild quotes on what to expect:

Marcus Weldon, president of Nokia Bell Labs: “What it really comes down to is mixing the physical world…the digital world–software systems, AI systems, and biological systems. You mix those together in real time. I have a permanent AR overlay.”

NTT Docomo: Envisions a “cyber-physical fusion”: “Many services utilizing cyber-physical fusion will be created in the 2020s and will be used practically in all environments, but more advanced cyber-physical fusion will be required in the 2030s. By transmitting and processing a large amount of information between cyberspace and physical space without delay, tighter cooperation between both spaces will be achieved, and ultimately, fusion without a gap between the spaces will be actualized. For humans, it will become possible for cyberspace to support human thought and action in real time through wearable devices and micro- devices mounted on the human body.”

Ericsson: “Maybe I want to stay a bit longer than usual in bed this morning, and instead of needing to call for my care worker, I can simply think and my 6G-connected exoskeleton will arrive seconds later, communicated via think.”

Cyber-physical fusion?  Exoskeletons?  Are we still talking about a wireless network or Cyberpunk 2077?

It’s too early to hazard a guess about what 6G will really be like, but here’s some reasonable guesses:

• It’ll have faster throughput than 5G.  Duh.
• It may improve latency.  5G is already pretty low-latency.  4G is 40-60ms.  5GB reduces this to less than 1ms.  How much lower can we go?
• It’ll be capable of greater density.  5G supports 1 million devices per square kilometer and 6G will no doubt greatly improve upon that.
• It’ll use higher frequencies.  The higher you go up the spectrum, the more data you can carry.  6G might approach terahertz speeds.  (Random braindfood: check out the extreme opposite of the scale).  Of course, higher frequencies mean shorter range.  Sorting this out will be a key engineering challenge.

And apparently it’ll link your brain directly with your powered exoskeleton in the garage, like Iron Man.  Neat.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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