Evolutionary developments in wireless networks

Wireless networks have played a prominent role in seamlessly connecting the globe and in servicing diverse communication requirements. They have witnessed evolutionary developments over the last few decades through several generations of technology, from 1G to 6G, with each generation bringing about significant performance improvements in the network speed, capacity and quality of connectivity.

With 5G generation networks emerged the services of data intensive applications of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), streaming high-definition videos, autonomous vehicles, IoT and many sectoral AI use cases, and is currently being laid out by various providers globally.

The sixth generation (6G) network technology, which is currently under development, aims to provide even faster data rates of terabits per second, extremely low latency, in the order of sub milliseconds, and enhanced coverage with unprecedented levels of connectivity. It is also planned to realize AI integration that will enable open up extremely high-end services and use cases.

Wireless network technologies beyond 6G are at a level of research with a few directions experts are exploring. These are, for example, Terahertz communications (THz) and Quantum communications (Qcom).

Challenges in deploying next generation wireless networks

Experience with deploying wireless networks has brought about many challenges such as signal loss due to physical barrier, often movement of users/devices that effect the quality and stability of connectivity, limitation in reach of wireless signals that may not cover all desired areas, densification of wireless networks that may cause congestion or interference among multiple base station sites, occurrence of multipath phenomenon leading to fading due to reflection or scatter from different surfaces.

The emergence of ultra dense deployment of heterogenous networks with high data rates and newer use cases have posed critical challenges for network management, operation, planning and deployment.

To mitigate the complexity of next generation wireless networks, newer methodologies of intelligent network management, data management, employment of edge computing as distributed computational means and better context perception have become important.

Role of AI in next generation networks

In the context of growing complexity of the next generation wireless networks management, techniques of AI have been used for intelligent network management and operation. These are mentioned below.

Intelligent wireless resource management:

AI is used to help optimize allocation and management of wireless resources, frequency, bandwidth and power, for their efficient utilization and network performance.

Network optimization and self-healing:

AI helps in optimizing network topology, deployment and maintenance that enables automatically analyze network performance, detect network anomalies and identify areas of improvement.

Intelligent beamforming:

AI helps to dynamically optimize beamforming patterns based on user locations, network conditions and traffic requirements. It also helps design antenna systems to adaptively adjust configuration to maximize coverage, capacity and energy efficiency.

Advanced spectrum management:

AI helps to achieve efficient spectrum management to meet growing demand of users through spectrum prediction, sharing and dynamic spectrum access and spectrum allocation among different services, reduce frequency interference and improve spectral efficiency.

Intelligent network slicing:

AI enables creating virtual network instances tailored to specific use cases and requirements. AI does it by taking into account user behavior, application characterization and quality of service (QOS) requirements.

Enhanced user experience:

AI helps to personalize user experience by leveraging data analytics and machine learning (ML) techniques. It helps to analyze user preferences, behavior and context to provide customized services, optimize network performance and deliver personalized content.

Security and privacy: 

AI contributes to enhancing security and privacy of networks by detecting and mitigating network attacks, identifying anomalies, and predicting potential security threats. It also helps in privacy preserving mechanism and preserve sensitive data during its transmission.

IoT management:

AI helps in intelligent data management of IoT devices in the network and processing in real time to decipher useful information.

Use cases:

Overall, AI would help in supporting data intensive use cases in the areas of, for example, healthcare, agriculture, education and other social services.

Status of development in next generation wireless technology in India

Developments in next generation wireless networks in India significantly contributed to the transformation of its telecom sector. It also laid the foundation of global recognition of its efforts towards new standards and test beds, and a highly competitive tariff.

The year 2020 was a landmark year for the Indian telecom industry when the country managed to get a crucial 

approval from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)for its in-house standards on 5G technology, designated 5Gi. The main focus behind building such a standard was to ensure that dispersed rural users are well served as its main population. The low mobility large cells rural use case proposed by India is now a mandatory requirement to be met by mobile communication technologies adopted as ITU standards. In view of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) having already set the international standards in 5G technology, the implementation of 5Gi had to be interoperable with 5G from the points of view of economics, time to deploy infrastructure and availability of customer devices.

Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA)

Following the 5G deployment, the Government has kept its focus on supporting the development in 6G networking technologies so as to remain in the forefront in technology adoption and market share.

The government is thus promoting 6G research under the umbrella of the following Bharat 6G Mission Statement as released by the Government.

Design, develop and deploy 6G network technologies that would provide ubiquitous, intelligent and secure connectivity for high quality living experience for the world at large.

Research beyond 6G network technology and envisioned outcomes

Even as deployment of 6G network is a few years away as standards are still evolving and network architecture yet to firm up, research is parallelly going on for wireless networks beyond 6G. The following are a few areas researchers are working on.

Terahertz Communications (THz):

Terahertz frequencies which lie between microwave and infrared ranges have the potential to offer extremely high data rates and ultra-low latency in communication. Researchers are currently investigating the challenges and opportunities in design of such networks and development in terahertz antenna design, signal propagation, and modulation techniques.

Quantum communications:

It is an emerging field that leverages the principle of quantum mechanics for secure and high-speed communications. It has the potential to offer unique capabilities such as secure quantum key distribution and quantum tele-portation, which could indeed revolutionize communication networks.

Continuing research

is underway in the areas of applications of AI, millimeter wave communications, spectrum sharing, edge computing, network slicing, advanced antenna designs to realize high speed, low latency reliable communications for a wide range of services and use cases like various big data applications.

Conclusion

Wireless networks have predominantly contributed to seamlessly connecting the globe and servicing diverse communication requirements. One has witnessed unprecedented developments in wireless networks over the last five decades through several generations of technology, notably 1G through 6G, with each generation exhibiting significant performance improvements in the network speed, capacity and quality of connectivity. 

Several technologies have played a prominent role in building intelligent mechanisms to orchestrate network resources and data driven use cases with recourse to AI techniques such as machine learning and artificial neural networks. Researches are continuing in areas of millimeter wave communications, spectrum sharing, edge computing, network slicing, advanced antenna designs to realize high speed, low latency reliable communications for a wide range of services and use cases like big data intensive applications.

The next generation wireless networks have truly proved to be the crucial facilitators of previously unheard and innovative communication applications and services that have become the foundation of a connected world. They are poised to become the largest contributor to the global telecom market value of over US$ 13 Trillion over the decade.

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