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High data rate communications and high-precision sensing are emerging new capabilities for delivering future wireless services. The Huawei 6G Research Team has developed and demonstrated an integrated sensing and communications with a Tera-Hertz (ISAC-THz) prototype. Using wireless electromagnetic waves, the prototype can sense and produces images of blocked objects with millimeter-level resolution and communicates at an ultra-high rate of 240 Gbit/s, opening up new service possibilities for 6G systems.
In his speech at China's first 6G Symposium on September 16, 2021, Huawei Wireless CTO Dr. Wen Tong said, "6G is no longer just a platform that connects everything. It is an intelligent platform that offers both integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) and integrated computing and communications. This platform will provide intelligent services and applications for industries to create greater social value. Bit transmission is not the only function of the 6G network.
We will reconstruct and represent the physical world using the propagation properties of radio waves such as reflection, scattering, refraction, and multipath. The 6G network will serve as a sensing network and 6G terminals will serve as sensing terminals. With network sensing and terminal sensing working in tandem, we can model the physical world covered by the entire network based on 6G. This will create two new features sensing-assisted communications and network-wide crowdfunding for AI big data."
The sensing data extracted from the 6G network will not just be used for modeling the physical world, it will also serve as a big data source and entry for AI learning. Network sensing enables a new usage scenario beyond communications, covering a series of use cases, including device-based or device-free target positioning, imaging, environment reconstruction and monitoring, and gesture and action recognition. Such use cases will be widely applied to industries, including human-machine coordination, environment reconstruction for smart cities, climate sensing, healthcare, and security detection. More application examples are given in the article 6G: The Next Horizon[1].