With 5G networking becoming more widely available, we’re now learning more about future technologies – 5G Advanced and 6G.
According to AT&T news, AT&T has asked the FCC for two, two-year experimental licenses that will be used to “demonstrate the functionality and capabilities” of these newer wireless systems.
The carrier will be performing tests out of Austin, TX. Coincidentally, Austin is home to the University of Texas at Austin’s 6G research center, which is supported by AT&T and other companies like Samsung and Qualcomm.
“The advances in both wireless communications and machine learning over the past decade have been incredible, but separate,” said 6G@UT Director Jeffrey Andrews, a professor in UT Austin’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in a press release. “Coupled with vast new sensing and localization abilities, 6G will be defined by an unprecedented native intelligence, which will transform the ability of the network to provide incredible services.”
AT&T’s application will be to use the spectrum licenses for testing communications between mobile units and fixed base stations. These units will be placed both indoors and outdoors. Tests will be performed to verify if wireless links can be established between the base stations and the mobile user equipment at distances up to 5 kilometers. Their end goal is to gain valuable insights into how to optimize next-generation cloud-native architectures and technologies as well as develop new use cases using multi-Gbps throughput.
The licenses AT&T is asking for include the following spectrum bands:
- 5.9 GHz to 8.4 GHz
- 10.7 GHz to 15.35 GHz
- 92 GHz to 100 GHz
The equipment used with these licenses must operate within higher spectrum bands. This includes the sub-Terahertz (THz) band, which is between 95 GHz and 3 THz. This band was made available for experimental licenses in March 2019 by the FCC. It was done as part of the agency’s Spectrum Horizons First Report and Order.
The THz spectrum offers more benefits than GHz. It’s capable of delivering data-intensive, high bandwidth applications at super-fast speeds for a short distance. Similar to the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum though, a signal traveling in THz spectrum can only travel a short distance (typically between 100 to 150 meters). It has yet to be fully tested, but some believe the signal will be impacted by environmental conditions.
AT&T was not the first company seeking to use the FCC’s Spectrum Horizons experimental licenses. Test and measurement company Keysight Technologies was granted the first FCC Spectrum Horizons experimental license for sub-THz frequency bands. This was announced back in March. They weren’t specific, but the company said it would be using the license to develop 6G technology.
3GPP, a standards organization, is also working on 6G standards and is expected to be released after the next several years. It’s also expected that 6G will incorporate advanced antenna technologies as well as more efficient coding and modulation schemes and will likely deliver multi-gigabit download and upload speeds. Most of the industry players anticipate that 6G will incorporate sub-THz and THz spectrum.
