Looking forward to 6G, what can it bring to our lives?

Chen Zhigang

Currently, 5G has been commercialized on a large scale around the world. Faced with the ever-increasing demand for traffic, the rapid development of AI, and the ever-increasing demand for mobile communication networks in the industrial field, 6G has been placed with high hopes.

The 2024 Global 6G Technology Conference, which concluded in Nanjing a few days ago, focused on topics such as 6G key technologies, communication AI integration and future applications, comprehensively demonstrated the latest results of 6G research and development, and also provided an excellent window for the public to understand 6G.

Deep integration with new technologies and new scenarios

In 2023, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined six typical scenarios and 15 performance indicators for 6G. The integration of multi-dimensional capabilities such as communication, perception, computing, AI, and security, and ubiquitous connectivity between air, space, and land have become the core technical features of 6G.

Looking at the 2024 Global 6G Technology Conference, new technologies and 6G are accelerating their integration, and we also see that new scenarios have become an important driving force for the development of 6G technology. Industry insiders generally believe that low-altitude economy and humanoid robots are potential emerging value scenarios and industries for 6G. The development of low-altitude economy can bring many benefits. By taking off, two-dimensional traffic can be turned into three-dimensional traffic, and point-to-point services can be provided to alleviate ground congestion, which is expected to generate trillions of economic value.

For the telecommunications industry, drone services are the most economically valuable 6G application scenarios. With the support of 6G's integrated air-ground-space communication capabilities, drones will play a role in express delivery, agriculture, smart cities, and low-altitude inspections.

Humanoid robots are another hot spot for 6G's potential application scenarios. As a disruptive product integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, high-end manufacturing, and new materials, following computers, smart phones, and new energy vehicles, humanoid robots have become a new frontier for technological competition and a new engine for economic development.

The "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made clear arrangements for the humanoid robot industry and proposed to expand the application scenarios of humanoid robots in the fields of people's livelihood, manufacturing and special services.

At present, humanoid robots have broad application potential in medical, housekeeping and other livelihood fields, especially in life health and companion care in medical scenarios, which can provide guarantee for people's high-quality life; in the industrial and manufacturing fields, human-computer interaction, dexterous grasping, sorting and handling, intelligent distribution and other scenarios have become the focus of the implementation of humanoid robots.

Building a fully digital work life

A report from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) shows that 6G can bring people a brand-new application experience, including but not limited to remote surgery, in-airplane or train entertainment, collaborative mobile robots, distance education, fixed point-to-point wireless applications, interactive immersive XR (extended reality), local collaboration for fixed or low mobility, local collaboration for vehicle applications, predictive maintenance and diagnosis, etc.

With the support of 6G, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication and coordination, autonomous transportation can reduce road accidents and traffic congestion, and immersive experience applications can seamlessly integrate virtual and real world environments and provide users with new multi-sensory experiences. People only need to monitor remote machines through virtual reality (VR) or holographic communication, and they can complete various complex operations with the help of tactile sensors.

Of course, the development of 6G is also inseparable from new terminals. The 6G Terminal Vision White Paper released by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) at this year's 6G Technology Conference shows that AI will be an indispensable capability of terminals. Digital intelligence technologies represented by AI, satellite intercommunication, industrial digitization, and flexible hardware technology will bring richer functions to 6G terminals and change the user experience and the scope of applications.

In daily life, 6G terminals will provide people with a brand-new digital experience. Potential typical scenarios include but are not limited to holographic multi-sensory entertainment, personalized extreme flexible shopping, smart nanny home, immersive cloud office, unmanned adaptive transportation, personalized virtual classroom, remote smart medical care, integrated global logistics network, digital twin city, etc. In the future, 6G terminals will have all-round communication capabilities, endogenous intelligence capabilities, terminal virtual and real full-scene perception and multi-dimensional sensory information presentation capabilities, and terminal expansion and coordination capabilities.

At present, progress in information technology represented by 6G has become the main factor driving economic and social changes. Technologies such as computers, the Internet, mobile communications, artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum communications, and the Internet of Things are also accelerating innovation and deeply integrating with the economy and society. Digitalization, networking, and intelligence are driving profound changes in people's lifestyles, governance methods, and production methods.

(The author is a well-known information and communication expert)