5G is not even yet accessible everywhere that an American researcher is studying the impact of 6G on our uses.
If optical fiber is still too expensive or it still takes a long time to establish itself in many regions, 6G could be an effective solution. Especially in rural areas, thus making it possible to capture everywhere.
Is 6G the solution?
6G is currently in development in so-called terahertz bands. Currently, the higher the frequency bands, the shorter the range of the transmissions and the more vulnerable they are to obstacles like trees. It is for this reason in particular that certain rural areas, far from urban centers have poor reception of 4G and sometimes even 3G. For years, the idea of 6G was considered science fiction. But it finally seems “closer than ever”. It is in this context that Josep Jornet, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern in collaboration with NASA, the US Air Force and Amazon has proven that high-speed, high-bandwidth wireless communication at the terahertz frequency is possible over long distances.
You need to find a technology that can give you optical-like connectivity without the optical problems, and we think terahertz technology is the right one for that.
The terahertz, a technology of the future
The terahertz band is a set of frequencies above 100 gigahertz, exceeding the 71 gigahertz limit of 5G. But although sending signals on the terahertz band has been proven to be effective, doing so over long distances is very difficult. Because the higher the frequency, the shorter the distance traveled by the information.
My research is motivated by showing people that things they think won’t work can work..
Well Josep Jornet and his team were able to create a 2 kilometer link, the longest terahertz connection ever established on Earth. How is this possible? Well traditionally a communications radio has a signal generator, a mixer, which adds the information to the signal, and an antenna which converts the signal into something that can be sent over the airwaves. The problem is that the terahertz frequencies are so high and require so much power to reach that any mixer placed in the radio will not work.
Jornet then explain:
We don’t have a mixer that can handle that much power. All right, let’s not have a blender
Instead of placing the mixer after the signal source, Jornet and his team fed the information directly into the source itself. Finally, the other concern inherent in this type of technology is the need to have towers that can send the signal from a high point:
You have to have direct visibility. That’s why we think it’s ideal if you want to connect towers across territories that would otherwise have to drill to install fiber optics..
In short, Terahertz technology is the future for drawing a definitive line on the famous white zones. In the same idea but on a smaller scale, it makes us think of this major evolution on wi-fi.
