5G is developing rapidly, but its development in vertical industries is a bit disappointing, mainly because technical indicators such as latency have not yet met industry needs, but 6G is expected to make up for the deficiency, Wang Jiangzhou, a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said during an industry forum today.
6G is in the stage of research and development and standardization may begin next year, said Wang who is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom. The next global wireless standard is expected to ensure more reliable connectivity for driverless cars, environmental monitoring, and remote surgery.
6G will deeply integrate multiple information technologies to merge communications, perception, computing, and artificial intelligence, Wang said. An important direction is achieving deep integration of the physical and digital world while building a new world where everything is intelligently connected, he predicted.
"We have holographic communications, digital twins, extended reality, and smart transportation. We need to develop many advanced technologies to become a technological leader. Compared with 5G, the future 6G network needs to improve in key indicators," he added.
6G is very different from 5G in terms of vision, experience, and definition, per Wang. In fact, it may be a revolution rather than an improvement to the previous protocol. Major information technologies should be advanced together so that highly personalized 6G networks can finally serve various niche industries, he suggested.
China released its first 5G licenses in June 2019. The country had nearly 3.4 million 5G base stations as of late December and 851 million 5G mobile network users as of Feb. 29.
Editor: Emmi Laine