Sixth-generation wireless technology (6G) will not come anytime soon but industry leaders and researchers are intensifying efforts to hasten its development, experts said.
Artificial intelligence will be “at the heart” of 6G, Merouane Debbah, chief researcher for AI and telecom systems at Abu Dhabi's Technology Innovation Institute (TII), told The National at the inaugural Abu Dhabi 6G Summit on Thursday.
This will lead to new ways of communicating, including through holographic means and 3D coverage, he said.
“It is a long process. At the moment, we have people at research centres developing the technologies that will fulfil the key performance indicators [KPIs] of 6G,” Mr Debbah said.
“We want to build an infrastructure that connects intelligence.”
What is 6G?
This is the next generation of wireless communications, which promises even faster speeds and efficiency compared with 5G, the current iteration.
When will 6G be available?
If history is to be a reference, new generations of wireless technology emerge with every new decade — which means 6G would become available in the early 2030s. This is a widely shared industry expectation.
The US has historically introduced new wireless technology iterations, with the third generation released in 2002, the fourth in 2010 and 5G in 2018. The second and first generations were in the 1980s and early 1990s, respectively, with the so-called “zero G” existing before that.
What is the timeframe for 6G's release?
Research on 6G technology began in 2020, which marked the start of a long and intensive process, Mr Debbah said.
By 2024, the standardisation process would begin, which will be kicked off by trials to ensure the technology works “in the right configuration” — a process that is expected to continue until 2026.
We have people at research centres developing the technologies that will fulfil the key performance indicators of 6G. We want to build an infrastructure that connects intelligence.
Merouane Debbah,
AI and telecoms researcher
Once tested, researchers will select the technology that responds to the established key performance indicators and then proceed to the next phase, which includes identifying the frequencies to be used by about 2027.
This period would last until 2028 or 2029, before 6G networks are put in place by 2030, hopefully.
What is the biggest challenge to 6G?
Apart from the tedious development and standardisation process, the most important aspect is to get all organisations involved and then agree upon the standards in order to move forward quickly, if the deadlines are to be met.
“Whenever there are different stakeholders, like manufacturers and phone makers, they need to know how to talk to each other. You need to be sure that everybody agrees,” Mr Debbah said.
Energy consumption is also a challenge. The industry is looking for more ways to make 6G technology more sustainable, in line with Cop climate summit goals.
There is also the concern of “connecting the unconnected”, which entails bringing network cover to most, if not all, parts of the world — especially in “dead spots” such as deserts — to ensure no one is left out when it comes to communication.
How fast will 6G be, compared with 5G?
The current technology, 5G, is already fast. However, 6G allows movies with 8K video resolution to be downloaded at speeds that are up to 500 times faster than what 5G offers.
Also, 6G is expected to enhance the capability of today's 5G networks by 100 times, Mr Debbah said.
Latency, the delay between sending and receiving information, will be reduced by a factor of 10 to 0.1 millisecond while the energy efficiency of networks will drop by a factor of 100, he said.
“It will be massive connectivity than what it is today — about 10 million connected objects per square kilometre,” said Mr Debbah.
What would be 6G's enabling technology?
As with every new standard, technology would either be improved or introduced.
With 6G, the Internet of Space Things, pervasive AI, network automation and terahertz communication bands that would satisfy the demand for faster speeds are expected to be its key enablers, according to research by TII, which is based in Abu Dhabi.
Pervasive AI is the process of machines learning from experiences.
At present, the most interesting yet unexpected driver is the metaverse, which emerged last year.
This is largely due to it being heavily promoted by Meta Platforms, the parent company of social media platform Facebook.
“The big picture is really a gigantic world,” said Ian Akyildiz, an advisory board member at TII, who also noted the big business opportunities that the metaverse presents — up to $394 billion by 2025, he said.
The metaverse presents an enormous economic opportunity worth between $8 trillion and $13tn, a PwC report said in July.
“It is an incredible opportunity from all perspectives — software, hardware, more applications and platforms — and maybe it will be much more,” Mr Akyildiz said.
Is it too early to talk about 7G?
It is. However, TII research provides some clues into what we can expect from a technology that would presumably come in 2040.
Among 7G's key enabling technology applications would be quantum communications, which uses quantum physics and cryptography — or the use of codes — to protect data, and the Internet of NanoThings/BioNano Things, which senses biological signals from the environment and sends them to data centres for processing on the internet.
All these sound so futuristic but with the current pace of technology, it won't be a surprise if we arrive at these sooner than later.
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Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
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Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
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MATCH INFO
World Cup 2022 qualifier
UAE v Indonesia, Thursday, 8pm
Venue: Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
SQUAD
Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammed Barghash, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Hassan Al Mahrami, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Yousef Jaber, Saeed Ahmed, Majed Sorour, Majed Hassan, Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Khalil Al Hammadi, Fabio De Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Caio Canedo, Muhammed Jumah, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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Investment raised: $4 million
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Profile
Company: Libra Project
Based: Masdar City, ADGM, London and Delaware
Launch year: 2017
Size: A team of 12 with six employed full-time
Sector: Renewable energy
Funding: $500,000 in Series A funding from family and friends in 2018. A Series B round looking to raise $1.5m is now live.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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Arsenal 2
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Portsmouth 0
Klopp at the Kop
Matches 68; Wins 35; Draws 19; Losses 14; Goals For 133; Goals Against 82
- Eighth place in Premier League in 2015/16
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MATCH INFO
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Man of the Match Romain Saiss (Wolves)
A Bad Moms Christmas
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Two stars
