Even as 5G adoption remains patchy, eyes turn to 6G

ISTANBUL

Though 5G technology has served as one of the most important drivers of innovation in the IT world, many around the world have now turned their sights on 6G even before its predecessor established itself fully.

If 5G era is the trailer, then 6G the movie in the world of digital components, according to engineer Huseyin Arslan, explaining that 5G was developed in recent years to meet rising data traffic needs.

Arslan, who is also the dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Istanbul Medipol University, said 5G's ability to respond to different application needs at the same time is its most important advantage over previous systems.

He underlined that 6G, on the other hand, will utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to better integrate people with their environment.

It will help digitalize not only people but also entire sectors, from health to agriculture, education to transportation, and many others, he added.

Besides conventional data communication, the output and collection of environmental data and its use in producing new information will gain importance with 6G, he said.

Arslan highlighted that 6G would pave the way for the integration of radar, detection, and communication technologies, underlining that by allowing the use of high frequencies, 6G is much faster at emotion perception and communication.

He also stressed that such a network structure, capable of detecting anything and communicating, needed to be secure.

"With 6G, it will be possible to equip a network, where cyber security threats may greatly increase, with newer and safer technologies.

"The vision of 5G is magnificent, but we can say 5G is not suitable for this vision and is a bit rushed. With 6G, we'll need to expand this vision and develop much better technologies.

According to a S&P Global research, 6G is expected to be 100 times faster than 5G but needs at least a decade become a reality.

While 3G technology offers one-seventh of a megabyte of data traffic per second, this is increased to 50 megabytes per second with 4G and up to 10 gigabytes with 5G.

Currently, even though many countries have launched or deployed 5G networks, several are still in the investment phase while others have yet to begin efforts in this field.

*Writing and contributions by Gokhan Ergocun