6G TECHNOLOGY - SCI & TECH
News: Explained
| Why is India taking 6G seriously?
What's in the news?
● Prime
Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Bharat 6G Vision Document, a starting point
for policymakers and the industry to gear up for the next generation of
telecommunications.
About the 6G Vision Document:
● The
document aims to guide and coordinate India’s efforts towards achieving a leadership position in the
development and deployment of 6G technology.
● The
document was prepared by the Technology
Innovation Group (TIG) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology, Government of India.
Features of 6G Vision Document:
1. Financial support to research:
● Beyond
encouraging greater participation in standardization discussions, the vision
document says the government will financially support “research pathways” where
breakthroughs are most likely to advance connectivity goals, leveraging talent
in academia and companies.
2. Apex regulatory body:
● The
government said an “apex body” will be set up to shepherd these groups through
roadblocks.
3. Indiactive goals:
● To
guarantee every citizen a minimum
bandwidth of 100 Mbps.
● Ensure
every gram panchayat has half a terabyte
per second of connectivity.
● Blanket
the country with over 50 million
internet hotspots, with thirteen per square kilometre.
4. Merge with existing technology:
● The
6G vision document proposes the
integration of satellite constellations with telecom towers and base stations
to extend networks to rural areas.
● To
boost connectivity, the government is considering various innovations that
already exist in other forms.
● For
example, satellite internet is a readily available solution that could be
quickly approved by granting administrative clearance to companies such as
SpaceX and OneWeb.
● These
companies can offer their services with minimal setup as the satellites are
already in orbit. However, administrative clearances may delay the
implementation of such solutions.
Implementation:
India’s
6G mission in two phases: the first one from 2023 to 2025 and the second one
from 2025 to 2030.
● Phase 1:
Support will be provided to explorative ideas, risky pathways and
proof-of-concept tests.
● Phase 2:
The focus will be on commercialization of the ideas and concepts.
Rationale behind the move:
1. Accelerate wireless data technology:
● The
Government has indicated that it wants to accelerate India’s wireless data
consumption lead and assume leadership in setting the standards for 6G in the
coming years.
● This
may involve everything from encouraging
local manufacturing of telecom gear to supporting Indian companies and
engineers in international discussions around standardization.
2. Delayed adaptation of new technologies in the past:
● Another
key motivation is the delay in previous generations of telecommunications
technology rolling out in India.
● 5G
started rolling out here years after countries like South Korea and the United
States had already blanketed their major urban areas with high-speed wireless
connectivity.
3. Scientific reason:
● Frequencies
generally increase in newer generations
of networks, but the lower the frequency, the longer a cell signal can travel.
● With
increasing data usage, lower frequencies in 4G networks may not physically be
able to keep up with the demand for traffic.
● More
data can travel in higher frequencies, which is the basis for 5G architectures
where base stations with low coverage took the place of a single larger cell
tower.
How do other countries approach 6G?
● South Korea: As
early as July 2021, South Korea planned ₩220 billion (almost Rs 1,400 crore)
investments into “super performance, hyperspace, and super precision
standards,” according to the country’s Ministry of Science and Information
Technology.
● Japan and Germany:
Countries have already started working together too, with Japan and Germany
planning a workshop in April to work on everything from “fundamental
technologies to demonstrations”.
● Europe:
The Indian 6G Vision paper cites Europe’s equivalent of the document, saying
that “The overarching Vision is to ensure leadership in strategic areas and
establish secure and trusted access to key technologies making Europe a
sovereign, independent, and reliable source for 6G public and private network
solutions and services.
About 6G Network:
● 6G
(sixth-generation wireless) is the successor to 5G cellular technology.
● Higher frequencies usage:
It will be able to use higher frequencies than 5G networks and provide
substantially higher capacity and much lower latency (delay).
Features of 6G:
● Higher
millimeter-wave
● Microsecond
latency
● Autonomous
wireless systems
● Lower latency:
This is 1,000 times faster - or 1/1000th the latency - than one millisecond
through put.one of the goals of 6G internet will be to support one
microsecond-latency communication (delay of one-microsecond in communication).
● Utilization of terahertz
waves: It seeks to utilize the terahertz band of
frequency which is currently unutilized Terahertz waves fall between infrared
waves and microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum.
● High data rate:
These waves are extremely tiny and fragile, but there's a huge amount of free
spectrum up there that would allow for spectacular data rates.
Applications of 6G:
1. Practical use of new age technologies:
● 6G
will enable the development of new augmented reality and virtual reality
applications, as well as the ability to control robots and other machines
remotely.
2. Optimizing mass public transportation:
● For
India, such an enabling set of technologies will bring manifold utilization of
scarce rail, air and road networks and make mass transportation far more
efficient; Artificial Intelligence (AI) and massively parallel computing
architectures will help solve transportation and scheduling operations research
problems.
3. Data security:
● 6G
networks will be more secure than their predecessors, as they will make use of
advanced encryption technologies and artificial intelligence-based security
measures. This will help ensure that data is kept secure and private and that
users’ personal information is not compromised.
4. Real time data usage:
● 6G
will have big implications for many government and industry approaches to
public safety and critical asset protection such as:
5.
Threat detection
6.
Health monitoring
7.
Feature and facial recognition
8.
Decision-making in areas like law enforcement and social credit systems
9.
Air quality measurements
10.
Gas and toxicity sensing
Challenges:
1. Higher cost:
● Rolling
out of the 6G network is very expensive. Setting new telecommunication
instruments across the country will require high cost.
2. Non adoption of existing technologies:
● Most
of the rural areas don't have a 4G network. In India, over 45,000 villages lack
4G connectivity, and 5G networks are still being built out.
3. Terahertz (THz) Signal:
● Generation
of continuous THz signal is difficult and expensive because it has more strict
requirements regarding size and has more complexity in designing the
antenna/transmitter.
● The
energy loss of the signal is too much.
4. Global Coverage:
● 6G
will rely on the low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite having a height of 500 to 2000
km from the orbit for providing global coverage.
● LEO
satellites travel very fast compared to the rotation of Earth. This leads to
doppler variation and doppler shift in the network communication and causes
random access, synchronization, signal detection, and signal measurement
issues.
WAY FORWARD:
● It
should take another look at the 6G draft to align it with the changing
requirements.
● India
should not miss the opportunity and should proactively work to deploy 6G
technology. We should focus on strengthening our cyber infrastructure.
● Funds
should be allocated and local technology and telecom firms should be
incentivized to develop their internal capacities which would in turn help 6G
technology succeed in the country.
● 6G
start-ups that enable this design and manufacturing capabilities should be
promoted. This will spur leaps in the coverage, capacity and density of
wireless networks.