6G’s success will be all about sensing, apparently – as 5G wasn’t “bold” enough.
Samsung, AT&T, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and InterDigital are funding at least two projects for three years at the newly-formed 6G@UT research centre at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin.
Jeffrey Andrews, 6G@UT Director and a professor in UT Austin’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said, “The advances in both wireless communications and machine learning over the past decade have been incredible, but separate.”
“Coupled with vast new sensing and localization abilities, 6G will be defined by an unprecedented native intelligence, which will transform the ability of the network to provide incredible services
Researchers from the companies will work alongside UT faculty members and students to develop wireless-specific machine learning algorithms, sensing technologies, and core networking innovations that will be the backbone of 6G.
Sensing vision
“5G’s vision of sensing has been insufficiently bold,” said Todd Humphreys, associate professor in UT Austin’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.
“6G should begin with the premise that sensing is not just for reacting to conditions, but anticipating them, so that vital links to automated vehicles, AR/VR headsets, and other latency-sensitive applications can be maintained with utter reliability.”
The UT statement said, “Other major pillars of the new centre and crucial parts of 6G, include the need to open new spectrum and low Earth orbit satellite links to improve coverage across rural and urban areas and design new network architectures to enable better resource and infrastructure sharing”.