6G Technology Enabler

Like every new technology, 6G also will require many component technologies that would make it possible. Before the 3GPP specification is finalized, nobody can be sure of what kind of enabler technology will be adopted. So what I am going to do for now is just to collect various ideas from different sources for quick reference.

There is nothing we can say for sure about the component technology as of yet (Feb 2021), but following illustration can be a good summary of possible candidates. This is based on Scoring the Terabit/s Goal: Broadband Connectivity in 6G and I think it is one of the best summary with focus on low layer implementation. Try to get familiar with the keywords shown here and it will be much easier for me to read other technical documents once you get familiar with these keywords. I strongly recommend you to read through the paper.

Image Source : (Modified from) N. Rajatheva et al.: Scoring the Terabit/s Goal: Broadband Connectivity in 6G

Following table shows some of the 6G component technologies and what kind of use caes that those technology can provide.

Source : Towards 6G Networks: Use Cases and Technologies (Mar 2019)

Let's try to summarize the enabling technology around 6G use case. Here I will talk about the use cases illustrated as below and correponding component technology summarized in table.

Source : Drawn based on 6G Wireless Systems: Vision,Requirements, Challenges,Insights, and Opportunities

This summary in the table is also based on the same paper : Section II 6G USE CASES AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Use Case	Technical Enabler
Holographic Communications	Technical Requirement Data Rates : tens of Mb/s ~ 4.3 Tb/s Latency : submilliseconds Synchronization : tight Security : strict Resilience : minimizing packet loss, jitter, and latency Computation
Tactile and Haptic Internet Applications	Application Robotic and industrial automation Autonomous driving Health care Technical Requirement Data Rates : ~ a few Gb/s Latency : ~ 1 ms Synchronization : tight Security : strict Reliability : 99.99999% or higher Priotization
Network and Computing Convergence	Application MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) AR/virtual reality (VR) rendering autonomous driving holographic type communications Technical Requirement load balancing joint network and computing resource scheduling (centralized or distributed) flexible addressing (every network node can become a resource provider) fast routing and rerouting (traffic should be able to route or reroute in response to load conditions)
Extremely High Rate Information Showers	Application kiosks at metro stations, shopping malls Technical Requirement Data Rates : ~ 1 Tb/s
Connectivity for Everything	Application real-time monitoring of buildings, cities, environment, cars and transportation, roads, critical infrastructure, water, power Internet of Biothings through smart wearable devices intrabody communications achieved via implanted sensors Technical Requirement large aggregated data rate high security and privacy
Chip-to-Chip Communications	Application on-chip, interchip, and interboard communications Technical Requirement 100~1000 Gb/sec
Space-Terrestrial Integrated Networks	Application large constellations of LEO satellites Technical Requirement Flexible addressing and routing Satellite bandwidth capability Admission control by satellites Edge computing and storage

Source : YouTube Charlie Zhang - Keynote: Radio Technology Evolution Toward 6G

PHY Related Enablers

Followings are some of the PHY related Enablers and challenges at the same time. Each of these items are to be investigated and researched extensively.

new modulation methods
waveforms and coding techniques
multiple-access techniques
antenna arrays
RF transceivers
real-time signal processing
wave propagation aspects

References

6G Wireless Systems: Vision,Requirements, Challenges,Insights, and Opportunities - ResearchGate

YouTube

Charlie Zhang - Keynote: Radio Technology Evolution Toward 6G - Center for Wireless Communications at UC San Diego (2023)