AI-powered 6G wireless promises big changes

The next evolution in wireless communication, 6G is expected to arrive in 2030, driven by ever-increasing demands for speed and bandwidth from the explosive growth in connected devices and AI.

6G (sixth-generation cellular) will deliver significant improvements in security, resilience, reliability, latency, connection density, traffic capacity, spectrum efficiency, and user data rates, compared to 5G. It is expected to be 50 times faster than 5G, with a top-end, theoretical speed of 1Tbps, compared to 20Gbps for 5G. It can also handle 10 million devices per square kilometer, compared with 1 million for 5G, according to Keysight Technologies.

It’s too early to predict all of the ways that 6G will change how enterprises do business, since 5G is only now starting to reach its potential and will take time to play out. But the possibilities are inspiring.

Is 6G coming too soon?

5G was first deployed in 2019, and many wireless service providers are still upgrading their networks from 4G. On top of that, the first release of 5G-Advanced is scheduled for release in 2024, with a second release by the end of 2025.

5G-Advanced is designed to enable immersive user experiences, introduces AI and ML enhancements, and improved support for low-power IoT devices. It sets the technology foundation for 6G.

There’s a case to be made that we still haven’t tapped the full potential of 5G and won’t know what 5G is fully capable of until it is fully deployed and enterprises start to use its ability to support larger numbers of devices, with higher bandwidth, better security, and lower latency. That’s also when we’ll start to see what the major shortcomings are.

“Some people are arguing that we should delay 6G by a few years until we know what the limitations are,” says David Witkowski, IEEE senior member, author, advisor, and strategist who works at the intersection between local government and the telecommunication industry.

“Right now, they want to double down on the stuff they’re doing in 5G-Advanced. You’ll see more advancements in augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality, you’ll start to see AI and ML play a bigger role, and you’ll continue to see evolutions in network efficiencies and multiple antenna capability. Right now, when I look at the early 6G requirements, I don’t see a lot that’s not already in motion in 5G.”

6G momentum building

Despite these concerns, the 6G train is already moving down the tracks. According to the 6G framework released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in November, the requirements phase of 6G development has begun. Technical standards will start being worked on in 2027, and deployment will begin in 2030.

Even though the standard won’t be finalized for several years, there are already 6G pilot projects underway. In October, the EU allocated 130 million euros to 27 6G-related projects which are scheduled to begin work this year.

And that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to all the 6G investments so far. “There’s already $35 billion globally allocated by governments to try to accelerate and develop 6G in their national markets,” says Stephen Douglas, head of market strategy at Spirent Communications, a UK-based telecommunications testing company. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s become a political issue – there’s so much focus on what it could bring to your economy in terms of GDP and how much leadership you have in terms of technology.”

What’s so great about 6G?

Many of the capabilities of 6G are extensions and improvements to existing features, but six of the 15 capabilities listed in the ITU’s 6G framework are new. These include coverage areas, sensing-related capabilities, AI-related capabilities, sustainability, interoperability, and positioning.

• Coverage: 6G is expected to use new frequency spectrums and allow for ubiquitous service, including in remote areas and indoor locations.
• Sensing: This will allow connected devices to transmit 3D measurements and modeling of the environment they’re in, allowing for new industrial applications, such as digital twin.
• AI: The plan is for 6G to support AI-enabled applications, including distributed data processing, distributed learning, AI computing, AI model execution, and AI inference. This will the deployment of ubiquitous intelligence to devices, applications, and environments. Plus, AI is expected to make the networks themselves smarter, allowing for self-monitoring, self-organization, self-optimization, and self-healing.
• Sustainability: Sustainability is a “foundational aspiration” for 6G, according to the framework. Infrastructure is expected to be designed to have the least possible environmental impact, use energy efficiently, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Interoperability: 6G systems will be designed from the start with transparent, standardized, and interoperable interfaces so that all parts of the network, regardless of vendor, will work together. That includes support for current 5G standards, and for satellite communications.
• Positioning: 6G is expected to allow for highly precise positioning; the framework suggests an accuracy of less than 10 centimeters (about 4 inches).

Together, these new capabilities will usher in a new era that’s probably a little hard to imagine right now. According to Europe’s 5G Instrastructure Association, 6G will be a “self-contained ecosystem of artificial intelligence,” that will “bring a near-instant and unrestricted complete wireless connectivity” and “radically reshape the way enterprises operate.”

6G could enable remote surgery in healthcare

The pace of technological change is accelerating across the board, and the move to 6G is no exception. According to Will Townsend, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, things are accelerating more quickly with 6G than 5G did at the same point in its evolution.

And speaking of speeds, that will also be one of the biggest and most transformative improvements of 6G over 5G, due to the shift of 6G into the terahertz spectrum range, Townsend says. “This will present challenges because it’s such a high spectrum,” he says. “But you can do some pretty incredible things with instantaneous connectivity. With terahertz, you’re going to get near-instantaneous latency, no lag, no jitter. You’re going to be able to do some sensory-type applications.”

For example, telemedicine applications will transform from doctors giving advice over Zoom calls to actual remote surgery. “You have to have very low latency to have tactile control over long distances,” he says. With 5G, there’s still some latency, he says.

Real-time remote controls could also enable enterprises to remove humans from dangerous physical locations, such as mines, and let them control the equipment remotely – or even have autonomous operations.

6G ushers in era of sensory awareness

The new 6G spectrum also brings another benefit – an ability to better sense the environment, says Spirent’s Douglas. “The radio signal can be used as a sensing mechanism, like how sonar is used in submarines,” he says.

That can allow use cases that need three-dimensional visibility and complete visualization of the surrounding environment. “You could map out the environment – the shops, buildings, everything – and create a holistic understanding of the surroundings and use that to build new types of services for the market,” Douglas says. “What would you actually do with it? That’s where the developer community needs to get engaged to see where the potential would be.”

Another sense that 6G could enable is that of touch. “Right now, all communication is based on sight and sound,” he says. “But there are mechanisms that are being explored right now that would actually allow you to transmit a handshake to another person.”

All AI, all the time

AI is hot, both as a use case that requires high connectivity and as a tool that can help manage networks. And AI is improving very quickly; moving, it seems, faster than we can keep up with.

That’s true for networks as well. We don’t know yet what applications AI will help make possible, but it’s almost certain that high speeds, low latency, and universal coverage are going to help.

“The increasing penetration of AI into our everyday lives – from bots to autonomous things – will require more bandwidth, higher speeds, and more edge computing,” says Ken Quaglio, partner in the communications, media and technology practice of Kearney, a global management consulting firm. “So 6G will help all those things.”

On the operational side, telecoms are already using AI for planning, he says, and this trend will only accelerate. “6G will absolutely enable operators to create and deploy self-managing networks. These networks will tune themselves based on demand, optimize transmission routes, and repair themselves.”

AI can also help develop more cost-efficient networks, says Spirent’s Douglas, improve radio performance, and reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent over the airwaves. “We can build AI-powered compression right into the 6G standard,” he says. “Personally, I think you’ll see some of this in 5G Advanced because it’s highly valuable, so why wait?”

AI can also help reduce the environmental impact of 6G, says Sarah LaSelva, 6G specialist at Keysight Technologies. “For example, the technology can determine how to optimize power consumption by turning on and off components based on real-time operating conditions,” she says.

In general, the combination of complexity and the massive amount of data makes wireless networks ripe for AI optimization, she says. “As AI adoption matures, it will transform the wireless industry over the next decade,” she says.

With 6G, AI might also be embedded right into the network fabric, says Townsend. “It could be part of the service offering, rather than just being used as a tool in the back office to make the networks more efficient. That could lead to novel use cases.”

Consider, for example, how 4G networks enabled the explosion in ride-sharing apps. “That’s something nobody saw coming,” says Townsend.

Predicting the effect of 6G combined with next-generation AI is even harder, he says. “When we put this technology in the hands of software developers, that’s when we’ll really see innovation take off.”