Four major technology providers—NEC, Fujitsu, NTT DOCOMO (DOCOMO), and NTT—have announced a collaborative set of experimental trials focused on 6G technologies.
While current 4G and 5G infrastructures will remain in use for years to come, industry leaders are already preparing for the next generation of mobile networks. These joint trials are intended to accelerate development and move practical 6G applications closer to reality.
Naoki Tani, Executive Vice President and CTO at DOCOMO, noted the company’s long-standing collaboration with Fujitsu:
“DOCOMO has been collaborating with Fujitsu since 2014 to verify wireless technologies towards the realisation of 5G and has leveraged the obtained know-how to provide 5G commercial services since 2020. We are delighted to collaborate with Fujitsu also towards the realisation of the 6G concept.”
The trials will explore high-frequency radio bands around 100 GHz and 300 GHz, a sub-terahertz range that many researchers and vendors consider a promising candidate for 6G. These frequencies can support extremely high data rates but also present new technical challenges, especially in how signals propagate and interact with obstacles.
To address propagation and blockage issues, the partners plan to test distributed MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems. In this approach, multiple spatially distributed sub-terahertz antennas will transmit simultaneously from different directions to a single receiving terminal. The goal is to combine signals in ways that reduce the impact of obstructions and provide more reliable links.
Through these distributed MIMO experiments, the consortium aims to develop techniques that maintain stable wireless speeds exceeding 100 Gbps even in challenging environments.
Fujitsu’s role also includes advancing high-frequency radio hardware. The company plans to develop devices based on compound semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN) and indium phosphide (InP). These materials offer advantages for high-frequency operation, enabling components that are compact, energy-efficient, and capable of supporting the high throughput and capacity expected from 6G networks.
By combining network-level innovations like distributed MIMO with advances in compound-semiconductor device technology, the partners hope to address both system-level and hardware-level barriers to commercialising sub-terahertz 6G services.
(Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash)
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