Mobile phones, usually intelligent, have become a daily element from our day to day. They help us with many tasks: buy online, choose the best route to go to a meeting, to consult our bank balance and to be aware of the latest trends. All this is possible thanks to the fact that they are platforms for information processing with storage, communication and interaction capacity with the surrounding environment. Moreover, they integrate different types of sensors, such as cameras and gear meters.
Our phones are still a member of a series of elements within the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). Thanks to the increasing possibilities of electronic integration and information management of communication networks, almost every device can have internet connectivity anywhere and time.
The Internet of Things has already implemented sensor networks by our cities, suburbs and national environments. That is why it monitors merchandise transport systems, light, water and gas distribution networks and the health of the infrastructure such as bridges. Also attend the management and control of automation systems in buildings.
These networks are fundamentally dependent on the capacities of wireless and mobile communication networks, which enable a ubiquitous implementation and, depending on the communication network used, mobility options.
How should it be a wireless network?
Wireless networks must be able to guarantee connectivity, taking into account variable channel conditions, both due to the wireless nature of the channel and by the user’s behavior (for example, chat in a metro car in the surface).
Since there is a wide range of connectable devices and operating conditions (depending on the type of traffic, device size and energy restrictions), we have various networks:
1. Sensor networks (Low Power Wide Area Network, LPWAN, such as Lora/Lorawan or Sigfox).
2. Wireless networks of local area (Wireless Local Area Networks, popularly known as WiFi).
3. Networking of body or personal area (Bluetooth and Near Field Communications-NFC for identification or payments with mobile).
4. The mobile networks themselves.
In the case of the latter, we are immersed in the use of 5G networks. More specifically, those who work in microwave tires under 6 GHz (known as no. FR1).
Since April 4, 1973, the first phone call has been made of a mobile phone, mobile networks have evolved into native IP networks, with data transmission options from various gigabits per second, with delays in the vicinity of Milliseconds that make the management of various services possible.
Moreover, all this is awaiting that the new evolutions of the 5G network (fundamentally the use of the networks in millimeter tires, 5G Nr2) are finally a reality.
To 6G
So what distinguishes the 6G network from previous generations?
The 5G network is ideal for managing internet applications, because it allows transmission rates that are used for the vast majority of the applications and response times that are suitable for those applications that are critical in real time.
The 6G network, the first operational versions of which are projected in 2030, proposes data transfer speeds in the reach of a terabit per second, latencies of 0.1 milliseconds, connectivity support for vehicles with speeds up to 1000 km/HY levels of reliability of 99.999999 %.
This makes multiple applications possible: real -time operating systems, massonectivity of all types of devices (devices, urban furniture, wearables, bicycles), a maximum of 107 devices per square kilometer and the implementation of mixed reality environments and extensive reality, with applications as spectacular communication.
This context creates the concept of joint communication capacities and is provided as a clearly differentiating and innovative element in the definition of 6G networks.
An example: In the case of 6G wireless signals, frequencies can achieve in the order of 3 THZ (with infrared properties than for microgol frequencies and millimeter waves). This means that they can not only serve to send information, but also to find objects, machines and people with high precision degrees, even indoors. Also to determine the heart of a person.
In this way the 6G network becomes much more than a communication network and it becomes a backbone of new forms of interaction, both with our real environment and in virtual environments. Of course we will have to wait a while for both technology and the socio -economic and cultural context to live in which we will live.
This article has been published in ‘The conversation. ‘
