While Philippine telco services are still rolling out their 5G infrastructure nationwide, Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung is already planning the next generation of cellular network technology, 6G.
In a newly published 6G white paper, Samsung outlines the direction of AI-native and sustainable communication. It aims to integrate AI technology throughout its telecommunications system and improve network quality.
“We are intensifying our 6G research efforts, focusing on AI-enabled communication technologies and sustainable networks,” said Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President of Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC), Samsung Research.
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Samsung sees the market and technology trends toward 6G, which indicates a higher demand for faster data connections and enhanced user experience. They also see the urgency of lowering operating costs, improving energy efficiency, expanding service coverage, and innovating.
The white paper also saw new key emerging services, such as immersive extended reality (XR), digital twin, massive communication, ubiquitous connectivity, and fixed wireless access (FWA).
- Immersive Extended Reality (XR) for entertainment, healthcare, and science.
- Digital Twin to create virtual replicas of physical entities.
- Massive Communication to simultaneously connect numerous sensors, machines, terminals, etc, for automation and management.
- Ubiquitous Connectivity for extended terrestrial network coverage
- Fixed Wireless Access for wireless delivery of broadband services that traditionally require wired connections.
To get ahead of the curve, Samsung also highlighted key attributes to future-proof themselves and adapt to the fast-evolving market demand to deliver sustainable user experience, such as AI-Native, Sustainable Network, Ubiquitous Coverage, and Secure and Resilient Network.
- AI-Native – incorporates the latest AI technologies into communication functionalities.
- Sustainable Network – reduces operational costs and increases user satisfaction.
- Ubiquitous Coverage – decreases CAPEX of networks and enhances service quality.
- Secure and Resilient Network – ensures network security, privacy, and resilience.
Samsung released its first 6G white paper in 2020. Since then, other telecom industry and standardization organizations have also moved toward this technology, including the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
While it’s good to see these innovations on paper, realizing it is a different story. The 6G technology standard is projected to be finalized by 2030.