HSINCHU, Taiwan – January 18, 2022 – MediaTek released its “6G Vision White Paper” outlining how 6G standardization will accelerate digital transformation globally. The white paper covers the timeline for 6G rollouts, the key drivers of 6G innovation and practical considerations for the implementation of 6G. The white paper also articulates the opportunities and challenges with 6G mobile performance enhancement, network architecture design, spectrum resource usage efficiency, communication and computing integration and energy efficiency.

MediaTek has been investing heavily in 6G R&D to ensure high quality technical development that will lead to its successful rollout in the coming years. MediaTek anticipates the initial standardization study effort in 3GPP will start around 2024/2025, with the first set of formal specifications release expected towards 2027.

“MediaTek’s vision is that 6G will enable intelligent connectivity with ubiquitous and transformational user experiences globally. With an AI-driven, wireless-compute cross-domain integrated and hyper-optimized communication system, 6G will provide truly user(demand)-centered, immersive and energy-efficient connectivity from dense urban areas to enterprises to even very remote regions,” said Dr. MingXi Fan, Deputy General Manager of Communication System Design at MediaTek. “By focusing on the S.O.C. design principles – simplexity, optimization and convergence – MediaTek will work with industry partners to make this vision for 6G a reality.”

MediaTek’s white paper outlines key trends for next generation mobile communications, including:

• New killer applications which will drive the need for more performance. These include extreme holographic and tactile communications, digital twins and advanced telepresence applications for consumer and industrial use cases.
• 10x-100x data rate increase over 5G with guaranteed low latency and QoS, primarily driven by advances in new applications such as those stated above.
• Additional spectrum availability in 7-24GHz and sub-THz frequencies, on the order of 50+ GHz total addressable bandwidth. This new spectrum opens up a significant opportunity for service delivery of extreme throughput applications, but also creates significant challenges to overcome poor propagation at higher frequencies.
• Transformational techniques on network densification as a means to increase low- and mid-band capacity, and as a means to overcome poor propagation in high frequency ranges. Known challenges related to indoor base station deployment costs and other practicalities will need to be solved differently than in 5G. 6G Hybrid Nodes, the convergence of devices and network nodes, will play a significant role in reducing densification costs and extending 6G coverage.
• Ubiquitous global connectivity, including remote areas currently not covered by terrestrial cellular networks.
• Incremental improvement of difficult 5G use cases and applications added for the first time after the initial 5G release. These will benefit from a design without any legacy constraints from earlier 5G releases, while minimizing system overheads where 6G will share resources with 5G.
• MediaTek will continue to focus on achieving breakthroughs in 6G research, developing cutting-edge 6G technologies, collaborating with the industry to formulate global 6G standards and making 6G solutions as energy-efficient as possible. The company’s 6G strategy is guided by the foundational design principles of S.O.C. – simplexity, optimization and convergence:
• Simplexity: 6G standards should strike a balance between complexity and simplicity to improve performance and optimize energy efficiency.
• Optimization It is critical to optimize 6G for wireless access system architecture, combining AI and machine learning with cross-layer techniques to maximize user experience through high-demand applications in complex environments.
• Convergence: Cross-domain convergence will open up new opportunities for performance, coverage and cost efficiency.

To learn more, please check out the white paper here: MediaTek 6G Vision White Paper.

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About MediaTek Inc.

MediaTek Incorporated (TWSE: 2454) is a global fabless semiconductor company that enables nearly       2 billion connected devices a year. We are a market leader in developing innovative systems-on-chip (SoC) for mobile device, home entertainment, connectivity and IoT products. MediaTek is the number one Wi-Fi supplier across broadband, retail routers, consumer electronics devices and gaming, and its Wi-Fi 6 chipsets are powering the latest networking equipment for faster computing experiences. Our dedication to innovation has positioned us as a driving market force in several key technology areas, including highly power-efficient mobile technologies, automotive solutions and a broad range of advanced multimedia products such as smartphones, tablets, digital televisions, 5G, Voice Assistant Devices (VAD) and wearables. MediaTek empowers and inspires people to expand their horizons and achieve their goals through smart technology, more easily and efficiently than ever before. We work with the brands you love to make great technology accessible to everyone, and it drives everything we do. Visit www.mediatek.com for more information.