Samsung publishes white paper with its vision for 6g and lists 3THz frequencies
Samsung has published a white paper with its vision for 6g networks. According to Samsung, the technology must offer peak speeds of up to 1000Gbit / s on frequencies up to 3THz. The company expects the technology to be ready for large-scale use around 2030.
Samsung published the whitepaper on its website. The company reports that the technology the company is likely already working on would use frequencies of up to 3THz, or 3000GHz. In March 2019, the American FCC opened a frequency spectrum of 95GHz to 3Thz for experimental use. The agency did this to encourage the development of new wireless communication technology. To illustrate, the EU has opened a maximum frequency of 26GHz to 5g at the time of writing, although higher frequencies are also supported.
The frequency spectrum of 6g probably runs up to 3THz
With the amount of connected devices growing rapidly, 6g should be able to serve at least 10 million devices per square kilometer, according to Samsung. At 5g, that’s another million devices. Samsung also expects peak speeds of up to 1000Gbit / s, or 1 terabit per second. This equates to a maximum transfer speed of 125GB / s. In practice, the achievable speed is probably lower, at about 1Gbit / s, which equates to 125MB / s.
Due to the higher frequency, the maximum supported speed of a moving 6g device should also be improved. Samsung does not yet mention a precise speed. At 5g, this assisted speed is 500 kilometers per hour. 6g is also more energy efficient than its predecessor, according to the Korean manufacturer. Samsung cites, among other things, industrial automation as a possible use scenario for 6g. The expected end-to-end delay is estimated to be less than 1ms.
The company does indicate that there are some obstacles in developing 6g. For example, the loss of signal strength at THz frequencies can be challenging. For example, the path loss at 280GHz is already 20dB compared to 28GHz, the company writes. This can be solved by using ‘very large antenna arrays’ in combination with techniques such as mimo.
Samsung gives a few possible designs, including, for example, a metasurface lens antenna. With this design, the direction of the radio waves is adjusted by applying a dc voltage. Some kind of lens for the antennas should further improve beamforming. Due to its special electromagnetic properties, an antenna made of metamaterial can do something similar, but does not require separate antenna arrays for the phase shift. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces are another option, which can be used to provide a signal path where there is no direct view of an antenna.
An antenna with metasurface lens
New waveforms are also discussed, although Samsung states that the current ofdma is still theoretically suitable for THz frequencies. The company writes that it is still necessary to look for other waveforms to circumvent certain limitations of THz hardware. The Korean tech company also discusses a few other issues around 6g, including the use of spectrum sharing technology and artificial intelligence to optimize network performance.
Samsung expects ITU-R, a sister organization of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, to begin defining the 6g standard in 2021. According to Samsung, the full 6g specification should be ready in 2028. Large-scale commercialization should take place around 2030.