As this is the first issue of 2023, it is an appropriate time to look at what our wireless future might hold.
Though WiFi6 has only recently been widely deployed, WiFi7 devices with 320 MHz channels (2x size) will soon be available with the following capabilities: 4K QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) enabling each signal to more densely embed greater amounts of data compared to the 1K QAM with Wi-Fi 6/6E, and a potential maximum data rate of almost 5.8 Gbps. This is 2.4x faster than the 2.4 Gbps possible with Wi-Fi 6/6E and could easily enable high quality 8K video streaming or reduce a massive 15 GB file download to roughly 25 seconds vs. the one minute it would take with the best legacy WiFi technology.
In addition to WiFi7, the more significant impact to OT and IIoT is the continued development of cellular communications.
Though 5G is still being introduced, discussion is already underway within 3GPP (https://www.3gpp.org/) who develop specifications covering cellular telecommunications technologies, including radio access, core network and service capabilities, which provide a complete system description for mobile telecommunications. Despite the 3G name, this group is responsible for the 4G and 5G standards and have begun work on 6G (expected to become available early in the 2030s) as well as 7G.
In the accompanying table, note that the 3GPP documents define three different services:
- Ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLS) for real-time data collection
- Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) for high data requirements
- Massive machine type communication (mMTC) for “slower” updates (report by exception) in high-density situations
6G will be designed integrating high-precision localization (with centimeter-level accuracy), sensing (both radar-like and non-radar like) and imaging (at millimeter-level) capabilities, including passive sensing of objects that may not require that they be broadcasting.
With a targeted increase of 20x bandwidth, 6G makes better use of existing spectrum by expanding the carrier bandwidth from 100 MHz to 400 MHz to provide up to 4x increase in capacity while improvements in antennas through the application of more sophisticated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques also make a significant increase in capacity by sending many more streams of data simultaneously. More antenna elements have been added to each successive generation: 4G uses 2x2MIMO and 4x4MIMO, while 5G benefits from massive MIMO using around 200 antenna elements and up to 64 transceivers. 6G may support on the order of 1,024 antenna elements in the new mid-bands.