Over the past four decades, mobile communication networks have evolved from limited voice services to infrastructures capable of transmitting massive amounts of data. The transition from the first generation to the fifth has been a continuous journey to increase speed, reduce latency, improve coverage and reliability, and support billions of devices.
Hot Topics
The human body ages in leaps and bounds Scientists identify two critical ages
From your phone screen to your data How do malicious apps sneak in and steal your secrets?
But the sixth generation aims to use stations and antennas as a sensor that enables the network to sense the environment and objects through what is known as "sensing and communications integration," a technology that combines radio communications and sensing capabilities.
This means that radio waves that propagate through homes, offices, and streets could become a source of information about the surrounding environment when their reflections and changes are analyzed in order to monitor presence and movement, and infer indicators, such as breathing patterns, while also investigating other physiological indicators under controlled experimental conditions.
This technology opens up new possibilities for smart navigation, healthcare, and conscious cities, but it raises questions about privacy and consent, especially since the sensing may affect people who do not have devices connected to the network.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has included "sensing and communications integration" technology among six key use cases for 6G.
In traditional communication networks, walls, cars, and human bodies affect the wireless channel and may cause signal fading, reflections, and multiple paths, but these same changes can be analyzed through "sensing and communication integration" technology to extract information about location and objects.
The technology integrates the communication and sensing functions into a single common platform, enabling towers and antennas to analyze radio reflections to extract information about the environment and both moving and stationary objects, as well as to send and receive data.
When a radio signal transmitted from a broadcasting station reaches an object, parts of it are reflected or scattered. One or more transmitting and receiving stations can capture and analyze these changes to estimate distance, speed, and direction, as well as estimate the object's dimensions or approximate geometric properties in appropriate scenarios.
Tags:
technology