Mobile networks will continue to evolve no matter how good 5G looks on paper in terms of speed, latency, capacity and possibilities. The last decades have shown us the rapid evolution of all technologies and the need for more by a society that is changing at breakneck speed. For this reason, there are already several projects working in the initial phase of 6G and today we know that the University of Texas together with Samsung, NVIDIA and other companies has created a research center to develop 6G.
A few days ago we told you about the first 6G tests that had broken the 5G speed record. In this case, it was a test conducted by Samsung together with the University of California in which they used a system that operates at 140 GHz frequencies and a 2,000 MHz bandwidth . With this, they were able to send data at 6.2 Gbps at a distance of 15 meters. The previous record was 5.23 Gbps with 5G.
University of Texas with Samsung or NVIDIA
Samsung wants to play an important role in the development of this new technology, but it is not the only company. In fact, the different projects that are increasing each time only show the interest in this technology. However, we must be clear about this and we know that it will not arrive, at least, until the year 2030. Until then, there is a lot of 5G to be deployed and a lot of 2G or 3G to turn off to make room for new technologies.
Samsung, AT&T, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and InterDigital have partnered with the University of Texas to launch 6G @ UT, a new research center that will seek to lay the foundations for 6G, that is, for the next generation of mobile networks after the 5G. Although they know that the latter is still taking its first steps, they consider that it is the fruit of many years of research and development.
For that reason, they are going to start working on the 6G. Jeffrey Andrews , project manager, explains that “Advances in both wireless communications and machine learning over the last decade have been incredible, but separate.” Now, adding location capabilities and “senses”, the 6G will be an intelligent native network like never before.
All members of the program will carry out a minimum of two projects during 3 years in this research center. The new projects will deal with the ability of these new networks to “feel” the environment, anticipate problems, learn, use high frequencies and many other things.
As they have explained, the 6G networks will have radar, vision, audio, LIDAR, thermal and seismic sensors and special software. In addition, it will rely on other pillars to open up new spectrum and also to take advantage of the capabilities of satellites located in low Earth orbit, such as SpaceX’s Starlink fleet.
