6G Status Report

Although 5G has not yet fulfilled all of the industry’s expectations, there’s already a push toward the development of 6G. Some of the loftier descriptions of 6G refer to it as the merging of the physical, digital and human world.  But what does that mean?  And how do we get there? To help define 6G, the industry has created the Next G Alliance. In addition, many academic institutions and vendor R&D departments are working to be at the forefront of 6G’s development. One early focus area for 6G is the Terahertz (THz) spectrum frequencies. This spectrum, which is very high on the frequency chart, is promising but comes with challenges similar to millimeter-wave spectrum, such as being susceptible to interference. This panel will look at the current status of 6G development and how this next-gen technology will differ from 5G.