Recently, in addition to the higher, faster and stronger Olympic era, another news has made headlines on overseas technology websites - researchers at the University of Sydney have developed a remote Wi-Fi system and debugged this Wi-Fi system for underground mine projects, in order to enable managers to remotely monitor workers working underground and control sensitive mining equipment, Wi-Fi signals extend to several kilometers underground.
According to media reports, such a remote Wi-Fi system will have the potential to change the rules of the wireless Internet game, which is a boon for the mining industry and Internet users everywhere. The co-leader of the project said: "Existing short-range technologies simply cannot meet the requirements of emerging IoT applications. Large-area communication coverage is often achieved through mesh networks, where there are a large number of nodes and relay stations, resulting in data transmission congestion and severe delays. ”
So what is the connection between this so-called WiFi system and the fashionable Internet of Things and 6G? To what extent will it have more impact on the consumer market? Xiaobian has been through a little relationship with the relevant academic leader of the laboratory because of his own interests, Professor Li Yonghui, who is an expert in telecommunications and information engineering at the School of Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of Sydney.
Motion Point Technology communicated with it by email and selected its main points for the readers.
Researchers at the University of Sydney are developing a new type of remote Wi-Fi for industrial use. Why are we engaged in research?
Prof. Yonghui Li: The motivation for developing this advanced remote Wi-Fi system was that we realized the obvious limitations of existing Wi-Fi systems. Existing Wi-Fi technologies are designed for indoor scenes with short transmission distances, i.e. less than 100 meters. Due to the high cost of Wi-Fi infrastructure, including a large number of access points (APs) and the power and network cables used to connect these APs, the cost of providing Wi-Fi coverage over a wide range is extremely high. So to solve this problem, we have developed a new Wi-Fi system that can solve the barriers of existing Wi-Fi systems.
Is there any difference between 6th generation wireless network technology and IoT technology used in 5G environments?
Prof. Yonghui Li: We know that 5G defines three use cases: Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Mass Machine Type Communication (mMTC), and Ultra-High Reliability Low Latency Communication (URLLC). Both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G eMBB services achieve similar gigabit-per-second data rates, but they are used in different scenarios. Due to limited coverage, Wi-Fi, including Wi-Fi 6, is mainly used indoors. 5G can be used in both indoor and outdoor scenes. The three types of use of 5G are for different IoT usage scenarios. For example, 5G mMTC is mainly used for remote monitoring scenarios such as environmental monitoring, logistics, and agriculture. 5G URLLC will be used in mission-critical applications such as remote robotics, autonomous vehicles, advanced manufacturing, and more. Wi-Fi systems use unlicensed spectrum, so their performance cannot be guaranteed. 5G uses licensed spectrum, so quality of service is guaranteed. Wi-Fi, on the other hand, is very cheap, easy to build and maintain, suitable for homes and other specific scenarios such as mining and factories, and doesn't require much effort to maintain the network. In contrast, 5G is a large-scale network that is very expensive to build and maintain. It uses licensed spectrum and has a wide range of applications.
At present, all countries in the world regard terahertz as an important technical direction for 6G, but its premise and foundation are not mature enough. Are you confident enough that research in this area will produce actual results?Professor Li Yonghui: Yes, 5G operates at millimeter wave frequencies. To achieve higher data rates in 6G, 6G will shift to higher frequency terahertz bands to achieve greater spectral bandwidths. The key challenge for 6G terahertz lies in the device development of technology and components. We have been committed to 5G millimeter wave technology and 6G terahertz communications, and we believe terahertz communication technology is on the right track.
Tell us what are the biggest challenges at the momentProfessor Li Yonghui: For the practical application and deployment of terahertz communication, we must overcome several technical challenges, such as accurate channel modeling and low-complexity signal processing. Due to the short communication range of terahertz communication, terahertz will be used with traditional microwave and millimeter wave communications to achieve effective network coverage. Another key challenge is the development of terahertz components such as terahertz RF, terahertz modulators, terahertz antenna technology, etc.
Professor Li Yonghui: The current Wi-Fi 6 has reached a data rate of gigabits per second, but as I mentioned earlier, the current Wi-Fi is mainly limited to indoor scenes with short communication distances. In addition, the latency and reliability of current Wi-Fi systems cannot be guaranteed, as they currently use random access mechanisms. Wi-Fi has a huge advantage over 5G and 6G, which is that it is very simple and inexpensive to deploy and maintain. As a result, Wi-Fi is the first choice for many applications such as factory, mining, and other industry settings compared to 5G and 6G. We are primarily developing in stacks, which means that our LR-WiFi systems are based on existing commercial Wi-Fi chips. This will greatly reduce the development and setup costs and time consumption of large-scale commercial applications. As such, it will be a low-cost, scalable solution for large infrastructure deployments. We expect the innovative Wi-Fi system to be commercially available by the end of 2022 for large-scale deployment. In addition to mining, it will be widely used in agriculture, the petrochemical industry, factories, warehouses, container ports, emergency applications, public safety networks and other fields.
Finally, the team representative also explained to us that it is one of the teams working on the research direction of the next generation of WiFi. The competitive advantage and business prospects of the solutions they provide. In summary, there are three key words: low cost, wide range, and strong compatibility.
Long-range, low-latency, and high-data-rate Wi-Fi networks are known to be at the heart of 6G technology and the IoT economy. The low-cost, long-range Wi-Fi system is being commercialized by local Internet companies in Australia and is expected to be available within the year. It's reasonable to expect that the next era of WiFi transmission will begin with something we've never seen before.