The Department of Data Science at CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa conducted a webinar on ‘Opportunities and Challenges in AI-enabled 6G Wireless Technology’ on 6 November 2021 at 12:00 PM. Mr Shridhar Iyer was the spokesperson for the event. 

The session began with Mr KT Thomas welcoming the audience for joining the webinar and introduced the speaker of the day, Mr Shridhar Iyer. 

Mr Shridhar Iyer started his talk by introducing all the network generations starting from 1G to 4G. He stated each of their features and the drawbacks, which led to the deployment of the succeeding generations. 

He continued to explain the 5G technologies like data rate of enhanced mobile broadband, URLLC, wireless technology and new technologies such as network slicing. He explained the goals of 5G, which is the interconnection of everything, i.e. enhancement of IoE (Internet of Everything). He gave an idea about how IoE works and how it is beneficial to a densely populated country like India, which faces problems such as low network coverage in many places. He has his opinion on 5G; it is inconsistent and might not perform up to the expectations and the future demands. 

Following that, he familiarised us with the 6G deployment. The idea of 6G was proposed in 2015. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) granted a spectrum in the US, while India is yet to make such developments in 6G. He compared 5G and 6G; he said that if the data rate for 5G is 100 Gbps, 6G will give us a data rate of 1000 Gbps. Evidently, 6G would have higher capabilities. He stated that the even network generations are more fulfilling compared to odd generations. 

He then further explained the proposed architecture of 6G and gave the idea of a vision of the 6G system that is to work efficiently without any human interaction. He spoke about requirements such as coverage, user data rate, personalized intelligent network, AI technologies and swarm intelligence. The applications of 6G such as AR/VR, holographic communication and 3D hologram display and digital replica were also explained in detail. He spoke about cloud computing, new spectrum algorithms, modulation formats, expanding network coverage and challenges such as large transmission delay. 

He concluded the session by speaking about career options related to networking, collaborating with AI and the popularity of 6G. He said that 6G would be deployed around 2024-2025, and IoE will be the buzz. He also encouraged the students to study more about 5G and 6G and collaborate with him in research in this field. 

This was followed by a Q&A session. Questions regarding the topic were asked, such as the possibility of 5G and 6G existing together. He said that they can exist with wireless-optical technology, with Jiofiber being the example. Another question was raised regarding the importance of G Evolution. He answered that computing is important. We don’t have to be dependent on G. Cloud computing depends on remote servers, and that’s why it is difficult to work with it. In the case of 5g and 6g, the generations give the data. The final question was regarding the harms of radiation that is emitted. He answered that in the case of 5G, the radiation effect will be there.  

To conclude the session, Dr Preethi Nanjundan gave the vote of thanks to the speaker Mr Shridhar Iyer for taking such an insightful session. She also thanked Fr. Jossy P. George, Dr Samiksha Shukla, all the faculty and the participants who had joined this wonderful session.