How many more generations of wireless communication can increase wave frequencies and data transmission speeds before it becomes physically meaningless?
One of the primary marketing arguments for 5G technology is its significantly higher speed compared to any previous generations. This is largely aided by the use of millimeter waves. However, the implementation of millimeter waves, which operate at much higher frequencies than those used in 2G, 3G, or 4G, has forced providers like AT&T and T-Mobile to rethink their 5G network deployments, as higher frequencies require placing smaller cell towers closer together.
The concept of 6G, which is still vaguely defined in the minds of researchers, may follow in the footsteps of 5G by using even higher frequencies and increasing data transmission speeds. Let’s entertain this topic — let’s assume that these same qualities will remain important for future generations of wireless communication and ponder where this road will lead us. What will 8G look like? What about 10G? At what point will extrapolations for future generations of wireless technology no longer make physical sense?
Naturally, most of these imagined wireless generations are absurd. Future generations of wireless communication will undoubtedly aim to increase speeds and data volumes, but researchers will develop and enhance new technologies that will allow for greater utilization of the existing frequency ranges. Technologies like MIMO already enable this in 5G networks. In the future, who knows? Perhaps AI will manage our spectrum, or new ideas will emerge.
6G
We already have some rough ideas about what the next generation of wireless communication will look like. It could involve terahertz waves, which researchers have already used to transmit data over a distance of 20 meters. Suddenly, concerns about placing 5G communication towers every 150 meters don't seem so crazy (though it still remains a costly endeavor). If 6G continues to condense the installation of small transmitters, prepare to dodge cell towers positioned every ten meters. But at least download speeds will be a thousand times faster.
6G is expected to arrive in 2028: 1 Tb/s, frequencies of 3 THz, 7.7 seconds to download the movie 'Avengers: Endgame' in 4K resolution.
8G
Let's jump to the 8G standard – here we've already skipped the visible light range and are using nearly ultraviolet waves to transmit texts to one another. With 8G, we have to worry about ionizing radiation. Concerns about mobile phones potentially causing cancer have existed for a long time; however, standard cellular communication has low energy and is thus not considered ionizing radiation. But with 8G, that assumption no longer holds – ultraviolet radiation is indeed ionizing, and if we spread it from every cell tower, mobile communication will definitely cause cancer. Or maybe not – at those wavelengths, networks could rely on focused beams instead of covering large areas. 8G could turn the city into a deadly yet precise playing field for invisible laser tag, where base stations send beams of data to our devices, narrowly avoiding us.
8G is expected to arrive in 2048: 17.2 Pb/s, frequencies of 3.65 PHz, 435 ms to download the movie 'Avengers: Endgame' in 4K resolution.
10G
Imagine how unpleasant it is to break a bone and drag yourself to the hospital for an X-ray? But wait, soon 10G generation smartphones will be here (not to be confused with , which already exist). 10G will use hard X-ray radiation – the kind used in medicine and airports – to transmit data. I bet at least one startup will advertise a mobile app for X-ray images. This is certainly a plus, but the downsides will include cancer and skin burns, which will only worsen as the signal climbs higher up the spectrum.
10G will arrive in 2068: 314 Eb/s, frequencies of 4.44 EH, 24.5 ns to download the movie 'Avengers: Endgame' in 4K resolution.
11G
Now we are already using gamma radiation to download podcasts and stream videos. If you're curious where else gamma rays are found, they have two main sources – cosmic radiation (particles flying almost at the speed of light) colliding with molecules in the atmosphere, and nuclear fusion. So the downside is that calling someone will require bombarding both phones with the same radiation produced during a hydrogen bomb test. But the upside is that you will be able to download all the data accumulated by human civilization in about 3 seconds – that is, at least it will happen before you die from radiation exposure.
11G will appear in 2078: 41.8 Zb/s, frequencies of 155 EH, 184 ps to download the movie 'Avengers: Endgame' in 4K resolution.
15G
15G is the finish line. If someone tries to sell you a 16G smartphone, ignore them – that’s completely absurd. For 15G we use ultra-high-energy gamma rays. Theoretically, shorter wavelengths with higher energy exist, but physicists have not yet observed them. Such energies are mainly observed only in extremely high-energy photons coming to us from deep space. Phone calls will occur using photons, each carrying energy equivalent to that of a pellet shot from a BB gun. New phones will need to be purchased frequently, as even very rugged phones will be damaged after each data download. Just like you – gamma rays have more than enough energy to shatter DNA molecules.
15G will arrive in 2118: 1.31 quettabits/s ( for the extension of the SI system, the prefix denoting 1030), frequency 230 Hz, 500 kbps for downloading the movie "Avengers: Endgame" in 4K resolution (this is, by the way, 290 times greater than the "natural unit" of time, which is 1.3×10-21s).
Source: habr.com
