X_G: FUTURE GENERATION NETWORKS
Let’s start with a quick broadband speedtest on your device. Speedtest.net? Of course! With over 5 million tests per day, it is considered to be the most accurate broadband speedtest globally extended by Ookla. Take a glance at the result for your download speed? 50Mbps? No, too low? Then what about 90Mbps? Yes? Great! You are among the lucky ones. India’s average fixed broadband download speed was recorded to be 34.85 Mbps earlier this April, 2020 and average upload speed is around 32.36 Mbps around the same period. At the time I was writing this article my test resulted in a piddly speed of 6.47Mbps on a 4G network which is much lower than the country’s average. For many, the results are much worse.
We all share the vision of a utopia of seamless connectivity and high ubiquitous download and upload speeds. With every passing mobile network generation our demands for higher speed, higher bandwidth, and lower latency keep on increasing and we are yet to find the parameters for our “perfect internet package”. At an average connection speed of 85.02 Mbps, Taiwan provides the fastest internet in the entire world. The shadow network called ESnet in NASA operates at a cross-country data transfer rate of 91 gigabits per second which is the fastest of its kind. It is approximately 10,000 times faster than the internet you experience everyday. Can such speed suggest the usage of 11G or 13G networks? No. Mobile generations cannot be solely classified on internet speeds.
Just imagine our enormous mobile potential: Home Automation, Smart Cities, Autonomous Vehicles, Connected Architecture, Wearable Computers, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning, Internet of Everything, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and much more are all under proposition. Which G-generation do we have to reach for all of them to work seamlessly?
Today, the buzzword 5G is the next big network proliferating. But to experience this G-generation we not only require a network that offers it but also smartphones which support it. These smartphones range from Galaxy S20 series to LG V60 ThinQ 5G to the OnePlus 8 Pro. But it may be misleading to conclude that all 5G phones provide superfast speeds. Some support only the lower bands of 5G while others support all frequencies. 378 cities spanning over 34 countries have already commercially rolled out 5G, predominantly in the US and UK. For Indians to benefit from the 5G network we require 5G-enabled phones which we already have from brands like Realme and our network operators need 5G radio spectrum and network equipment. Ericsson, a network equipment vendor, reports 5G service is going to be likely available in India from 2022.
Is it too early to talk about 6G or 7G? As said by Ericsson’s Chief Technical Officer Erik Ekudden,
“ It’s never too early to start researching the next evolution of the mobile industry”.
With numerous researchers and engineers exploring these nascent networks, we have an Avant-garde reality awaiting us. How different will they be from 5G? 5G already claims to connect everything making the Internet of things a mainstream reality. Next, 6G is set afoot to make these connected devices free with unbelievable speeds, negligible latency, and multiplied masses of bandwidth. Devices will be turned into antennas giving birth to a decentralized network that cannot be controlled by a single network operator. This generation portends to the transformation of network operators into a single Nanocore resulting in a huge revelation of the wireless communication industry.
6G aims at integrating satellites with wireless networking for global coverage. So irrespective of whether you are streaming videos live, announcing your victory, from the peak of your highest trek point or trying to call for help from the deepest part of a jungle, you will never be let down. It is like imagining a world with no dead spots at all! Studies claim 6G can produce extraordinary speeds of 8000Gbps to 1TB per second. Get over a 5G network downloading a movie within seconds. Brace yourself for downloading 100+ hours of Netflix within a single second. The incomprehensible revolution in vehicle pre-crash sensing and accident prevention, optimized and smart traffic flow, home-based ATM systems, remote diagnosis of patients by doctors from anywhere in the world, space to sea communication, natural calamity control and even harnessing energy from the galactic world is about to set afoot. The question lies, when will this utopia be reached? Believe it or not, in another decade 6G may possibly give life to science fiction applications like enabling mind-to-mind communication. With wearable micro-computers, cyberspace will be able to sustain real-time human thoughts and actions.
We can never stop looking for more. Can we? With 7G we can achieve what many may just dream of today. We can not only acquire space roaming with such a network but can introduce a whole new advent in satellite communication. It will bring together the global navigation satellite system, the telecommunication satellite system, and the earth-imaging satellite system along with 6G cellular networks. Constant mapping of user’s position, voice and multimedia data for user’s communication and minute-to-minute weather updates to the highest possible precision is what this network may withhold.
As we have seen it takes almost a decade to transition from one G to the next, that include, trials, deployment, market uptake or even demise. For believers in optimism and the “Law of Accelerating Returns” know, with cutting edge technology and genius brains of our scientists, outpacing any expectation will not be an element of surprise. I have already started contemplating my virtual trek on the Grand Canyon with a bunch of friends telepathically, sitting in different continents! Have you?
