From 5G to 6G, between augmented reality and artificial intelligence

by Giulia Bonelli

tellites, all mobile devices could be connected to the Internet and to each other in real time, and manage a vast amount of data securing a much higher level of privacy. Movies could be downloaded in a few seconds, and complex industrial operations could be safely monitored: satellite-based 5G is the key to a true technological revolution. It's a challenge to which the European Space Agency has decided to respond by launching the "Space for 5G and 6G " program, with a view to building a cutting-edge European telecommunications system that integrates satellite and terrestrial networks and their related applications.

Every day a large proportion of us use satellites regularly although we may not realize it, like when we check weather forecast, or when we look up a street address by using a GPS signal. Yet most of our mobile technology is still based on data collected from ground stations: just think of the icon on our smartphones and tablets that identifies the network we depend on for our data traffic and that makes it possible for us to stay always connected. 4G technologies primarily rely on an array of antennas that receive and transmit the signal. But not everywhere: there are still many areas in the world where the signal is weak or absent altogether. The future fifth generation of mobile networks could solve this problem. How? By taking advantage of signals transmitted directly from space – the very same ones we use every day for a diversity of services, and that 5G would make into an essential element of our lives.

Satellite technology could change the way we communicate. By transmitting the signal directly to sa-

A research team at ESA's Mission Control Center in Darmstadt, Germany, is working at new formats such as virtual and augmented reality for astronaut training. ESAbacked French startup Sysveo has developed a way of integrating user-made augmented reality objects into a drone’s video stream so to allow drone operators to analyse data in real time. Credits: Sysveo/ESA

And in a not-too-distant future this could translate into yet another revolution when we step into the 6G universe. The sixth generation of mobile telephony is designed to aggregate the most important and advanced technologies that recently have become available: from robotics to Augmented Reality, from the Internet of Things to Artificial Intelligence.

The market for VR headsets and viewers is a recent evolution. The use of such devices is still relatively limited for they are currently obtrusive and not something that someone would wear outside of the home. However, when 6G will be available, things will change thanks to a more advanced integration between available technologies, thus ensuring continuity between the physical and digital worlds. The metaverse, in short, could become a fluid continuation of reality as we know it today, with endless potential and applications and a huge flow of data collected and processed thanks to Artificial Intelligence.

According to a recent analysis by Global Data, a leading global player in data analysis, 6G could even make smartphones irrelevant by 2030. They could be replaced by mixed reality devices that would completely change the way we interact with the world. A scenario that perhaps seems like Sci-Fi to us today but remember that at the end of the last century, the sheer thought of having smartphones that would keep us constantly connected might have sounded like SCIFI, too.