Automation of almost everything in society requires more than what 5G can offer. It would help to build a digital society. 6G would be able to merge the physical, digital, and biological world that would be fulfilling the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SDG is the collection of 17 pre-defined and interlinked goals that would bring a better and more sustainable future for everyone.
What is 6G?
6G is the technology that would be realistic somewhere around 2030, just try to imagine a day that your favorite cup of coffee is delivered by a robot to you that knows more about you, your mood, and your behavior.
You are getting breakfast ready, already the ideal set water temperature for bath and food on the table. Commuting here and there with self-paced vehicles, meanwhile, bots are opening the top priorities task to-do list for you, your personal digital financial advisor helping you to achieve better financial targets.
6G use cases as of now are the prediction for major usage scenarios that would help out to define the required future generation changes.
6G can be defined as its XR (Extended Reality) that would impact everything and everyone. XR is the combined term used to encapsulate AR, VR, MR, and whatever comes in between them.
The very same way it was defined for 5G as well, 6G leads the introduction for two things:
- 5G Radio access network support to be flexible for new radio frequency bands.
- Support the service-based architecture, converged n/w that can support a wide range of services.
Later on, cloud-native design Helped it to go beyond what was expected from 5G.
To Find the 6G future capabilities, multiple steps are taken, those includes:
- methodology design
- use case collection
- high-level classification
- generic use case abstraction
- Use case analysis
In this whole scenario, a total of 50 use cases were defined, which were further divided into 4 classes, and then mapped to 14 general use cases.
6G Use Cases Categories
Below are the four categories that have been defined for 6G use cases:
1. Enhanced machine communication
This reflects the use and growth of collaboration between robotics, and autonomous machines, Sensing the surrounding environment, Robots communicating with themselves and humans.
2. Enhanced human communication
It includes high-level use cases for human interaction and immersive experience.
3. Enable services
For high accuracy location details, Body sensing data, Enabling environmental services.
4. Network evaluation
Use of AI as a service, delivering broader coverage and energy-efficient solutions.
A very important point to consider for 6G is environmental stability, in terms of eco-design as well as enabling the impact to reduce the environmental carbon footprint of industries and human activities.
Also, three main aspects to consider for future technologies are security, trust, and privacy.
6G use cases as per NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance)
1. Enhanced Human Communication
- XR immersive holographic telepresence communication
- Multi-modal communication for teleoperation
- Intelligent interaction: sharing of sensation, skills & thoughts
2. Enhanced machine communication
- Robot Network Fabric
- Interacting Cobots
3. Enable services
- 3D hyper-accurate positioning localization and tracking
- Interactive mapping, digital twins & virtual worlds
4. Network Evolution
- Trusted Native AI – AIaaS
- Coverage expansion
- Energy Efficiency
Source: https://www.ngmn.org/publications/6g-use-cases-and-analysis.html
6G Use Cases in Real-Life
1. Smart Railways
This is somewhere requiring the paradigm that infra, train, Goods, passengers are connected with very high data speed rates.
Basic use cases would be, broadcasting the passenger details, accurate locations for trains and traveling passengers, high-quality surveillance, and last but not least, remote driving.
2. Remote Areas Connectivity
Way to interlink every corner of the world with everything, as of now there is still more than half the area where it does not have even basic connectivity, the main aim of remote area connectivity would be to reduce the distance between different corners.
3. Extended Reality (AR/MR/VR)
XR is the umbrella term used for all technologies like AR, VR, MR, and whatever comes in between.
4. Robotics and Industrial Automation
Industry 4.0 is the ongoing process that would combine IoT, Cloud services, automation. It would help to achieve a highly efficient industry environment that is almost automated.
Use of URLLC, extremely low latency somewhere around 0.1-1ms (round-trip time) RTT in communications, real-time data transfer, and very low jitter. 5G is already helping to implement industry 4.0 and the rest of 6G would be able to uncover every aspect of enhanced Industry 4.0.
5. Autonomous Vehicle Mobility
Autonomous vehicles expect reliability of around 99.99% and latency below 1ms.
High throughput data rates would be required as the number of vehicles and sensors would drastically increase. Smart transportation is introduced into 5G and 6G would meet the further enhancement requirements.
6. Way to Help how Children can Play and Learn
It would help children to play and learn in more different aspects, would bring the global environment and culture very close to every distant kid.
7. Tourism
6G would help out to explore ancient and historical sites with XR technologies more realistically.
8. Work-Life balance
Everything will be interconnected, which would help out to reduce the commute and help out people to manage their work-life in more efficient ways.
9. Hologram
In a 3-D projection, images are seen without any special equipment such as 3-D glasses or a camera.
Images can be seen from any angle and it slightly changes accordingly. So technology can be integrated with other technologies and bring an immersive experience.
Example: From Star Wars Episodes IV: A New Hope
10. Holoportation
Holoportation is a new type of 3-D capture technology that allows compression, transportation of 3-D models in real-time.
Example from Movie Kingsman: The Secret Service
11. People with Disabilities
Things that were impossible for them to feel in real life can be achieved using XR.
12. Working Professional
Engineers can collaborate more efficiently and bring more ideas to the table.
6G visions defined by Different Companies
Samsung 6G vision:
- Truly Immersive XR
- Digital Replica
- High Fidelity Mobile
NTT Docomo 6G vision:
- Generations of mobile communication systems and changes in the values provided – From Smart to Well-being.
- Human augmentation
- Perception sharing
- Multilayered sensory information
- Expansion of the communication environment.
- Communication between human and things
- Solving social problems.
Ericsson’s 2030 Trends: (Internet of Sense):
Source: Ericsson research paper
Ericsson views five key technology building blocks that will drive mobile network evolution towards 2030 and beyond:
Source: Ericsson: Five key technologies propelling futuristic 6G use cases
Topic’s References
- https://3g4g.co.uk/6G/6GTraining/6Gtraining_part03.html
- 6G Mobile Wireless communications, Use cases and Applications
- White Paper on Broadband Connectivity in 6G https://www.ngmn.org/publications/6g-use-cases-and-analysis.html
- NGMN Organization: 6G USE CASES AND ANALYSIS – Feb 2022 Whitepaper
- Docomo: White Paper 5G Evolution and 6G (Version 4.0)