How Apple Thinks About The 6g Evolution

Apple is successful nan networking business, which intends it is profoundly progressive successful building nan next-gen networking standard.

With its C1 5G spot and immense networking tech improvement division, Apple is successful nan networking business. So, nan institution is heavy enmeshed successful nan improvement of the next-generation 6G networking standard.

Apple shared its imagination and priorities for nan in-development 6G modular astatine a caller 3GPP shop convention successful Seoul, wherever it stressed nan request for bully personification experiences, unchangeable and accordant networking operations, backwards compatibly and power ratio successful 6G.

It besides stressed that erstwhile 6G is introduced, nan characteristic and devices it is expected to support should beryllium disposable from time one.

Apple’s now-confirmed entreaty against nan UK’s profoundly authoritarian and technologically vulnerable onslaught connected individual information encryption proves privateness and information are important to nan company. That’s why it is calling for personification privateness to beryllium a “cornerstone for 6G architecture.”

(The petition whitethorn move retired to beryllium moot, fixed nan sheer standard of information picked up by mobile telcos.)

The position made astatine nan shop delves into extended detail, but 1 of nan shortcomings it thinks needs to beryllium fixed successful 6G, arsenic compared to 5G, is consistency.

6G for nan remainder of us

You see, erstwhile nan second modular became disposable it arrived successful respective “flavors,” not each of which were used. This created disorder and apt dampened adoption/delivery of applicable usage cases. Think astir nan 5G successful your phone? Is it really 5G? It depends connected which spirit you use.

Apple, which has been working connected 6G for years, thinks 6G needs to vessel pinch other simplicity and should support astir devices from nan get-go. Somewhat surprisingly, faster connectivity isn’t arsenic important to nan institution arsenic accordant coverage, bully artillery life, and deficiency of latency. 

In different words, it wants 6G to beryllium arsenic accordant and easy to use/deploy arsenic immoderate Apple product. And fixed its unsocial position arsenic a mobile instrumentality vendor, Apple is besides urging standards setters to push for debased power — because it knows that decreasing power requirements for networking exertion dramatically extends artillery life.

When it comes to architecture, Apple is pushing for AI/ML support wrong and by this standard, integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), spectrum sharing, and wide power support. It besides wants amended integration between satellite and terrestrial networks, and casts shadiness connected nan thought of caller 6G spectrum being made available.

When it comes to backwards compatibility, nan institution notes that while 6G is not expected to beryllium backward-compatible, it should support later-introduced 5G features and usage cases from nan start. It must besides be forward-compatible, meaning caller features, services, and usage cases tin beryllium rolled retired complete time.

The institution stressed that this whitethorn beryllium peculiarly important for caller AI-driven networking features. But to my mind, it makes nan networking tech thing that tin beryllium improved incrementally complete time, conscionable for illustration immoderate different software-driven tech should be.

Apple is consistent

To a awesome extent, Apple’s priorities successful 6G improvement bespeak its wider attack to everything it makes: personification simplicity, debased power consumption, and accordant experiences. It’s nary astonishment it wants nan aforesaid successful next-gen networking tech – a “clean and thin creation from time one.”

Apple’s thoughts are apt to beryllium adopted by immoderate of nan galore companies that shape nan 3GPP 6G moving groups, peculiarly because it now has immoderate highly-respected networking modular experts connected its staff. But we won’t cognize whether its effort succeeds until nan first group of specifications are published astatine nan extremity of 2029.

It’s clear Apple would for illustration nan spec to beryllium progressive by 2030, and nan urgency pinch which it sees consistency and afloat modular support suggests it will not beryllium precocious to vessel a 6G iPhone.

You tin publication much about Apple’s attack here, pinch an extended (recommended) study that looks astatine nan galore much submissions from others successful nan abstraction made astatine nan shop and disposable from Telecom TV.

You tin travel maine connected societal media! Join maine on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.