Funded by NSF, AFOSR
A cognitive radio (CR) is a radio that can be programmed and configured dynamically to use the best wireless channels in its vicinity to avoid user interference and congestion. Such a radio automatically detects available channels in wireless spectrum, then accordingly changes its transmission or reception parameters to allow more concurrent wireless communications in a given spectrum band at one location. This process is a form of dynamic spectrum management.
6G networks will be able to use higher frequencies than 5G networks and provide substantially higher capacity and much lower latency. One of the goals of the 6G Internet will be to support one micro-second latency communications, representing 1,000 times faster — or 1/1000th the latency — than one millisecond throughput.
The 6G technology market is expected to facilitate large improvements in the areas of imaging, presence technology and location awareness. Working in conjunction with AI, the computational infrastructure of 6G will be able to autonomously determine the best location for computing to occur; this includes decisions about data storage, processing and sharing.
Advantages of 6G over 5G:
6G is expected to support 1 terabyte per second (Tbps) speeds. This level of capacity and latency will be unprecedented and will extend the performance of 5G applications along with expanding the scope of capabilities in support of increasingly new and innovative applications across the realms of wireless cognition, sensing and imaging. 6G’s higher frequencies will enable much faster sampling rates in addition to providing significantly better throughput. The combination of sub-mmWave (e.g. wavelengths smaller than one millimeter) and the use of frequency selectivity to determine relative electromagnetic absorption rates is expected to lead to potentially significant advances in wireless sensing solutions.
Additionally, whereas the addition of mobile edge computing (MEC) is a point of consideration as an addition to 5G networks, MEC will be built into all 6G networks. Edge and core computing will become much more seamlessly integrated as part of a combined communications/computation infrastructure framework by the time 6G networks are deployed. This will provide many potential advantages as 6G technology becomes operational, including improved access to artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.