How India evolved from 1G to 6G technology and what lies ahead

The Indian research team strives to enhance 6G technologies with Ericsson's Swedish and US researchers.

Ericsson launched a 6G research team for its 'India 6G' program. The new 'India 6G' initiative features senior research leaders and experienced researchers in radio, networks, AI, and cloud technologies to help the Indian government lead 6G technology after a successful 5G rollout. Fundamental telecommunications solutions will be the team's focus.

The Indian research team strives to enhance 6G technologies with Ericsson's Swedish and US researchers. Next-generation technology seeks to establish a cyber-physical continuum where networks deliver crucial services, immersive communications, and ubiquitous IoT while protecting data.

Long ago, Nikola Tesla predicted in 1926, "When the wireless connection is fully implemented, the planet will be teeming with extraordinary intellects..." The anticipated advancement by 2030 is predicated on fulfilling fundamental human and societal necessities. Predictions regarding Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Tesla may originate globally.

In this regard, 6G will contribute significantly by providing an ICT framework that enables end users to be surrounded by a "huge artificial brain." In addition to unlimited storage and mass cognition capabilities, it provides virtual storage services.

Evolution of 1G to 6G

The first generation (1G analogue) (1980-1990): It used a circuit switch to support 1–2.8 KBps data speeds. It used analogue phone service output. Only sound will sustain its 40 MHz bandwidth and 800–900 MHz frequency range. FDM was utilized. The call quality was poor. The energy use was high. It suffered from weak connectivity, data capacity, security, and transmission.

Second generation (2G digital technology): It relies on GSM, the global mobile communications system. Finland promoted it in 1991. The early digital cellular networks had features of the output networks they replaced: greater standards and better safety. Digital technologies, including text, photo, and MMS, have supplanted 2G technologies for digital communication. Text messages are entirely digital under 2G technology.

Third generation (3G): The third generation of mobile transmission technologies enables 144kbps and more for high-speed data. It meets "high-speed transmission, high multimedia access and global roaming" standards for previous wireless technologies. 3G is used in mobile phones and headphones to connect to the Internet for voice and video calls, downloads, and web browsing. Videoconferencing, Internet access, and the entire video movement benefitted from 3G.

Fourth generation (4G): IP-based 4G mobile communication was introduced in the late 2000s. 4G innovations aim to provide high-quality, high-capacity, and low-effort security services for phone, information, sound, and Internet services via IP. Change all IP addresses to create a platform for all advanced inventions. It supports 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps.

Fifth generation (5G): 5G research focuses on "World Wide wireless Web (WWWW), dynamic ad-hoc wireless networks (DAWN) and real wireless communication". "802.11 wireless networks in local areas (WLAN) and wireless networks in an urban area (WMAN), an ad hoc wireless personal area network (WPAN) and networks wireless for digital communications" are key 5G technologies. Portable gadgets with 5G have AI.

Progress towards 6G: As the implementation of 5G systems progresses rapidly, scholarly attention has shifted towards 6G mobile cellular systems. In keeping with the roughly ten-year cycle in which a new generation of cellular systems is introduced, it is anticipated that deployments of a standardized 6G system will commence before 2030.

What would be the impact of digitalisation?

Digitalisation will additionally facilitate the development of novel virtual realms featuring digital depictions of fantastical entities, which can be blended to different extents with the digital twin world to produce a super-physical, mixed-reality world. With the progression of smartwatches and heart rate monitors to skin patches, ingestible, body implants, body armour skeletons, and brain activity detectors, the digital and virtual environments will seamlessly integrate the precise mapping of human biology at each instant, facilitating the development of novel superhuman capabilities. User interfaces for augmented reality will enable intuitive and efficient human control of these physical, virtual, and biological worlds.

So, the following would be expected by 2030:

• Wearable devices, including earbuds and clothing-integrated devices, will increase, and bio-implants and skin patches may not be uncommon. Emerging brain sensors may enter into our dependence on operating machinery. We will carry multiple technologies with us at all times, and their interfaces will be natural and intuitive, allowing them to communicate with one another effortlessly.
• Touch-screen input is expected to become obsolete eventually. Using our electronic devices to complete tasks through gestures and speech will become the norm.
• The devices will possess complete context awareness, and the network's ability to anticipate our requirements will increase sophistication. Integrating context awareness with novel human-machine interfaces will significantly enhance the efficiency and intuitiveness of our interactions with both the physical and digital realms.