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    6G Wireless Technology: Accelerate Your R&D with MATLAB

    The world of wireless communications has begun the research and development to build sixth-generation (6G) wireless systems. 6G research and development aims to improve on the performance of the current 5G systems and develop networks that are faster, more intelligent, operate with lower latencies, and enable new applications. Enabling technologies for 6G may include new frequencies like sub-THz communication, as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, joint communication and sensing, and new digital waveforms. Hear an overview of the goals and vision for 6G systems, the enabling technologies, and how MATLAB® wireless communications tools can enable you to accelerate your 6G R&D process with reliable modeling and simulation.

    Published: 3 May 2023

    [AUDIO LOGO]

    Hello, and welcome to this MATLAB EXPO 2023 session entitled 6G Wireless Technology-- Accelerate your R&D with MATLAB. My name is Houman Zarrinkoub. I'm the Product Manager of the Wireless Communication Products, here at MathWorks. And today, I am joined by my colleague and friend, Dr. Ahmad Saad.

    Hello. My name is Ahmad Saad and I am with the Application Engineering group at MathWorks.

    So what are we going to learn today? First, we're going to take a look at the goals, and requirements, and the evolution of the upcoming 6G communication systems. Then, we will zoom in on the 6G enabling technologies. And finally, we'll learn how MATLAB can help you accelerate your 6G R&D exploration and design activities.

    Let's look at the first agenda topic, the 6G goals, requirements, and evolution. The goal of wireless communication, in general, is ubiquitous connectivity, meaning connecting all devices we have to internet, no matter where we are in the world. There are multiple modalities for wireless communication.

    The most familiar include the cellular connectivity, using wide area network base stations and cell phones. We also use a lot of Wi-Fi connectivity in our homes and offices. And for our personal devices, we use the Bluetooth connectivity in short range. More and more, nonterrestrial networks, including satellite communication, is being touted as another mode of wireless connectivity.

    And that's where we are. 6G is the next generation of wireless systems. And it stands as the evolution of the digital mobile cellular systems.

    The 2G system started in 1990s, with systems in North America and in Europe, as GSM, Edge, GPRS. And the maximum data rate of these systems were about 100 kilobits per second.

    3G, which was introduced at the beginning of the millennium, were CDMA-based systems. And they were about tens of megabits per second as your data rate.

    Now, the 4G that was introduced in 2008, and in the early 2010 decade, marked the first time we had a true, global wireless communication with LTE, LTE Advanced standards. And the maximum data rate leaped forward to 300 megabits per second, approaching 1 gigabit per second.

    And now we are in the 5G era. It started in 2018. And the maximum bitrate, again, has the leap forward to about 20 gigabits per second.

    So what will 6G bring and what are the other requirements that we have to look at? Now, as I mentioned the 6G is in the research and development stage. And we are setting the goals and requirements for these systems. There's a global collaboration is ongoing. Most experts believe the goals include more inclusive, immersive, and sustainable wireless connectivity. That means a superior performance to our existing 5G networks, flexibility, and expanded use cases that 5G had, scaling up resources, and bridging the digital divide for wireless connectivity.

    But there are impressive requirements. The maximum bitrates of hundreds of gigabit per second, minimum latency is about 0.1 millisecond, and maximum positioning accuracy of about 1 millimeter. These are something being discussed that is truly a global achievement.

    So what is the projected timeline and evolution of the 6G standard? We are in the 5G era right now. And the first time 5G was released was in June of 2018, by the Third Generation Partnership Project, standard body 3GPP. The next major release of 5G is dubbed as release 18, and it's projected to be around 2024.

    Now, for the next generation of wireless systems, the International Telecommunication Union, in a document called International Mobile Telecommunication, in this case IMT-2030, and sets the requirements of what has to be achieved to qualify as 6G systems. And then, the 3GPP will develop the actual technology that's capable of satisfying those requirements. The ITU document is projected to be available in 2026, and the 3GPP standard is provisioned to be around 2028 to 2030.

    Now what are the new applications enabled by 6G systems? The researchers believe it's mostly in the area of virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, connected cars, industries and automation, ubiquitous wireless coverage, joint communication and sensing, and low-power wireless communication. To achieve all of these new applications, we have to have enabling technologies. And I welcome my friend and colleague, Ahmad, to talk to you more in depth about 6G enabling technologies.

    Thank you, Houman. Let's now look at the enabling technologies that are envisioned to bring 6G into reality. Most experts around the world agree on a set of key technologies that will help realize the quality of service requirements of the challenging use cases of 6G. These technologies include non-terrestrial networks, artificial intelligence, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, terahertz and sub-terahertz communication, and new waveforms for 6G.

    In what follows, we will go through those technologies, define their impact on 6G, and most importantly, we will explore how MATLAB can help you investigate those technologies and answer their challenging research problems. Let's jump in. Let us begin with Non-Terrestrial Networks, or NTNs.

    NTNs are networks where non-terrestrial vehicles, such as satellites or commercial drones, act as base stations in the sky and complement existing cellular installations. How do they enable the use cases of 6G? First, they help provide universal coverage and ubiquitous connectivity, anywhere and anytime. They help bridge the digital divide in the society, by connecting rural and remote areas. And they help realize critical applications, such as securing service availability if natural disasters strike.

    Next, let us explore how MATLAB can help you answer the challenging research problems of NTNs. Let us begin with satellite scenario and mobility modeling. With MATLAB, you can model constellations and scenarios, you can create beautiful visualizations, you can model multi-domain scenarios involving aircraft and satellites, and you can perform access analysis, or visibility analysis, between constellations and ground stations.

    Next, in terms of designing and analyzing satellite links, MATLAB offers great capabilities to analyze latency and Doppler effects, to build and model multi-hop links, and analyze interference between constellations and communication links. Here, MATLAB has ready to use standard-based channel models for satellite communications, models defined by the International Communications Union, ITU, and by 3GPP, such as the NTN Fading Channel.

    Finally, in terms of antennas, MATLAB has powerful workflows that enables the design and the optimization of antennas and antenna arrays for non-terrestrial networks.

    Let's now talk about Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, or RIS. What is RIS? RIS are programmable, reflective surfaces that can passively manipulate the phases of the wireless signal that they are reflecting. So practically, you now have active control over the wireless channel, which has always been considered a given in classical communication system design.

    How do RIS enable 6G? First, they extend the coverage and eliminate blockage, by controlling how wireless signals are reflected. They help improve spectral and power efficiency. They also improve localization accuracy, by providing controllable nodes for localization services.

    Let's now look at how MATLAB help you research RIS. With MATLAB, you can use the Antenna Toolbox to model the behavior of reflecting services. The Toolbox has a full electromagnetic solver that allows you to design materials and surfaces. You can model scattering MIMO Channels, with MATLAB, including delay, Doppler shift, and phase changes, and you can accurately model the reflections using MATLAB's raytracing capability, where the phase of the reflected signal changes based on the material.

    Let's now talk about AI for 6G. AI is being considered for a wide range of use cases for 6G because it is expected to enable many new capabilities and performance improvements. This is basically motivated by two main factors the success of AI in many other fields, such as image processing, and the recent advancements in the hardware and computational power.

    So how does AI enable 6G? First, it improves the performance and the efficiency of communication systems because of its data-driven approach, as opposed to the model-based approach that is classically used to design communication systems, meaning now, we use the data itself to create communication systems, rather than using models of the data. AI reduces algorithm complexity and facilitates joint optimization of network and device operations.

    Here's how MATLAB helps you with your AI research for 6G. 3GPP put particular focus on three AI areas for its release 18-- namely, channel state information feedback compression, beam management, and positioning. MATLAB has excellent ready-to-use examples and workflows that address those three important areas, in addition to many other examples.

    MATLAB is interoperable with Python and has a flexible two-way integration, where you can call MATLAB commands directly from Python, and you can import models directly from TensorFlow and PyTorch into MATLAB. MATLAB offers powerful workflows to capture live signals over the air, with test and measurement equipment and software defined radios, in order to train and test your AI wireless models.

    Let's now talk about terahertz and sub-terahertz communication for 6G. In order to satisfy the unprecedented increase in data traffic that is expected in the next decade, we need to go higher in the carrier frequency, reaching hundreds of gigahertz. How will this enable this 6G? This will enable extremely high bandwidths, reaching hundreds of gigabits per second. This will also allow ultra-precise localization, due to those extreme frequencies.

    And here is how MATLAB can help you with the design of terahertz communication systems. First, MATLAB allows you to model massive MIMO systems with hybrid beamforming architectures, so that you can answer the range question of terahertz. Next, MATLAB has accurate models for environmental losses due to the terrain, in addition to atmospheric losses that are incurred at such extreme frequencies. And finally, you can explore and model architectures of data converters for extremely high data rates using MATLAB.

    The final technology we will talk about today is the design of new waveforms for 6G. Why do we need new waveforms? 6G is likely to target a variety of frequency bands and each band will require a certain, appropriate waveform. We also need resilient waveforms, capable of compensating hardware limitations, such as phase noise, that typically occur at high frequencies.

    How does this enable 6G? New waveforms will improve spectrum and power efficiency, they will improve coverage and throughput, and they will enable new use cases, jointly with communication, such as sensing, positioning, and physical layer security.

    And here is how MATLAB can help you design new waveforms. You can use the waveform generation capabilities of MATLAB to build on existing 5G waveforms, adapt them, and explore new waveforms for 6G. And MATLAB has an extensive library of functionalities that allows you to explore and investigate single-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems, compare their performance, and assess their fit for 6G. This concludes the enabling technologies part. And back to you, Houman.

    Thank you, Ahmad. Now let's talk about the ways MATLAB can accelerate your 6G exploration and design process. To build on what Ahmad was telling us, I have collected here for you three examples, or design patterns, that are part of the release 2023a of MATLAB, that shows how we are investing in the areas that help with the 6G wireless communication.

    One of the areas is the application of AI for digital pre-distortion As the bandwidths will be larger, and the need for maintaining linearity over a large swath of bandwidth in the wireless systems, digital pre-distortion plays a big role. And we have developed AI techniques perfect for these applications within our wireless communication systems. By collecting data on test instruments and training in neural network, using real power amplifier data and testing them in MATLAB, we can optimize the digital pre-distortion techniques.

    When it comes to wireless sensing, we have introduced a new example, also, that uses, in this case, Wi-Fi channel state information to detect the presence of people in the room. But of course, the technique can be applied to any wireless systems. You capture the vehicle information. You essentially train information with and without movement, and train a neural network to classify the presence of people within that scene.

    Another example relates to the intelligent reflecting surfaces. We have done the EM analysis of these type of surfaces using our Antenna Toolbox. So we modeled the response of an IRS using full-wave EM simulation, so you can create and visualize the IRS, the assigned direction and polarization, and visualize the reflection characteristics. And with that, you can help characterize the different surfaces.

    Why is MATLAB the perfect tool for faster 6G design and exploration and research? We believe our differentiators are as follows. We have a lot of algorithms for existing wireless system that are in open, editable, customizable MATLAB functions, that help you start your 6G exploration as a nice starting point, and compare the results with the existing systems. Also, using MATLAB and Simulink, you can jointly optimize digital, RF, and antenna portion of 5G systems in the same environment and look at the interaction between them. And we have many tools for continuous and easy prototyping and testing of your designs with hardware connectivity.

    How to learn more? I would like to invite you to consult our wireless communication solution page, at mathworks.com, and the wireless communication product pages related to 5G WLAN and satellite communication, which relate to the 6G exploration dimension. And we have put together wireless communication workshops and training on satellite communication, non-terrestrial network, AI for wireless, and 5G training course. With that, I would like to thank you on behalf of myself and Ahmad, and wish you a wonderful day.

    [AUDIO LOGO]

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