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Research laboratory hails 6G breakthrough with record speed test

Neeraj Singh

May 22,2023
6 min read
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Lab claims results could be used to make existing 5G transfers up to 20 times faster. The wonderous feat has been achieved by engineers from Japan's National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT) and has now been published as a research paper at the International Conference on Optical Fiber Communication held virtually from June 6-11.

6G Technology

6G (6th Gen Wireless) is a more advanced communication technology than 5G. Despite being at a concept stage, 6G is already making waves in the wireless communications space. 6G technology will be used to communicate at a much faster speed with other technologies like human-machine interfaces, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), machine-to-machine communications, and much more. 6G technology in the telecom sector will also help bring low latency (simply put, the time taken for data packets to travel from the sender to the receiver)

The latest Bharat 6G Vision Statement lays out the roadmap of government to bring 6G in India. Explained in detail below.

Zach Marzouk

Zach Marzouk is a staff writer for IT Pro, Cloud Pro, and Channel Pro where he writes news articles and in-depth feature pieces primarily focused on Asia Pacific and the US. Aside from covering topics like security, privacy, worker rights, and startups, he also contributes to the IT Pro podcast and IT Pro 20/20.

After studying an undergraduate degree in Arabic and Spanish at the University of Leeds, Zach completed a journalism internship at The Argentina Independent in Buenos Aires where he wrote about the country’s history, politics, and technology.

6G vision document

The 6G vision document released by Department of Telecom (DoT) states that while 5G technology promises a speed of 40-1,100 Mbps with the potential to hit maximum speed of 10,000 Mbps; 6G will offer ultra-low latency with speeds up to 1 terabit per second. This is 1,000 times more than the top speed of 5G.

Purpose of the 6G test bed

The Bharat 6G vision document unveiled by the Prime Minister has been prepared by Technology Innovation Group on 6G (TIG-6G) that was constituted in November 2021 with members from various ministries/departments, research and development institutions, academia, standardisation bodies, telecom service providers and industry to develop a roadmap and action plans for 6G in India.
The government said that the Bharat 6G vision document and 6G test bed will provide an enabling environment for innovation, capacity building, and faster technology adoption in the country. "India is working with many countries to change the work culture of the whole world with the power of 5G," PM said.

Bharat 6G Vision Statement

Bharat 6G Vision Statement is a document released by the Government of India, Ministry of Communications, and Department of Telecommunications. It lays out the government’s vision, plan, and roadmap to bring the 6G technology launch in India as well as use the technology to bring transformation to various sectors and industries. An important thing to note is that India has also got 127 6G patents now, globally, and as per reports, even countries like the US are keen to have technology from India.

Below are a few of the key points from the Bharat 6G Vision Statement.

Bharat 6G Vision Statement: Key points to know

As per the Bharat 6G Vision Statement, the government is planning to launch 6G in India by 2030
The government’s 6G vision statement includes three main objectives: Affordable, Sustainable, and Ubiquitous
6G can provide speed up to 1 TB/second
6G use cases will include remote-controlled factories, constantly communicating self-driven cars, and smart wearables taking inputs directly from human senses, said the Bharat 6G Vision Statement
The government plans to position India as a hub for 6G technology, R&D, and manufacturing
As per the Bharat 6G Vision Statement, 5G will have a large coverage by 2030 and the same year would mark the beginning of 6G in India
Lower, mid-range, and higher bands and spectrums are to be made available for 6G
A pool of Rs. 10,000 Cr is envisagedto be created to service the 6G requirements for the next 10 years. The government may take lead in creating this fund.
Government to consider the feasibility of 6 GHz, 10 GHz, and THz bands

5G Vs 6G Comparison

5G 6G
5G technology	6G technology
5G is a 5th Gen technology	6G is a successor of 5G and a 6th Gen technology
5G covers bands up to 40 GHz	6G is said to work anywhere between 300 GHz to 1THz bands
5G Speed is a maximum of up to 10,000 Mbps	6G can provide a speed up to 1 Tbps
5G offers lower-latency	6G offers even lower latency (ultra-low latency)
5G cannot support Satellite Integration	6G can support Satellite Integration
5G cannot fully support use cases with ultra-low latency such as remote surgery, autonomous driving, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, metaverse experience	6G can support use cases such as robotic surgery, autonomous driving, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, metaverse experience

6G Speed Test:

6G as of now doesn’t exist. However, many countries like South Korea, the US, Japan, and now India are working on building 6G technology. While the 6G technology may not exist as of yet and is still under research and development, there are estimations of the 6G speed.

It is believed that 6G speed will be 100 times faster than 5G (5th Gen) communication technology.

Currently, 5G technology promises a speed of 40 to 1,100 Mbps. The maximum speed for 5G is up to 10,000 Mbps. However, as per the Bharat 6G Vision Statement, 6G will offer ultra-low latency with a speed up to 1 TBps.

"These 100 new labs will help in developing 5G applications according to India's unique needs. Be it 5G smart classrooms, farming, intelligent transport systems or healthcare applications, India is working fast in every direction", he added. Noting that India's 5G standards are part of the global 5G systems, he said that India will also work closely with ITU for the standardisation of future technologies.

Benefits of 6G

As per the Bharat 6G Vision Statement, the benefits of 6G technology and how 6G will work differently than 5G are explained below:

Faster Speeds: 6G is expected to be 100 times faster than 5G allowing you to stream, browse, download, run data ultra-fast!
Low Latency:6G is expected to have lower latency than 5G, which will enable real-time communication and applications such as remote surgery, autonomous driving, and virtual reality.
Increased Capacity: Since 6G operates at a much faster rate as compared to 5G & have lower latency, consumers can send or receive large data files easily as well it would support the growing demand for IoT devices and applications.
Energy Efficiency: 6G is expected to be more energy-efficient than 5G, which will enable longer battery life for devices and reduce the carbon footprint of the technology.
Security and Privacy: 6G is expected to have enhanced security and privacy features, including improved encryption and authentication methods, to protect user data and ensure network integrity.

CONCLUSION

As mentioned in the research, the NICT team recorded a 319 terabits per second (Tb/s) speed for data transfer over a distance of approximately 3,000 kilometres. To put the new speed into perspective, know that the old record for the fastest data transfer was held at 178 Tb/s. The new technology beats the old internet speeds by using 4-core optical fibre of standard outer diameter of 0.125 mm to transfer data using light instead of normal copper cables.