A concept photo of 6G technology Illustration: VCG

China's 6G telecommunication technology has made a key breakthrough with the first real-time wireless transmission communication experiment using terahertz orbital angular momentum, the Second Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Co (CASIC) announced on Wednesday.

The experiment completed 100Gbps wireless real-time transmission on 10GHz transmission bandwidth by using wireless backhaul technology. The success of the experiment makes it possible to maximize the utilization of bandwidth and provides a guarantee for the development of 6G communication technology in China, according to a statement that the research institute sent to the Global Times.

With the continuous improvement of communication rate requirements, mobile communication frequency bands are being extended to millimeter-wave and higher terahertz frequency bands, while signal transmission loss is greatly increased, and the deployment density of base stations increases exponentially.

In the 5G/6G communication era of highly dense base stations, traditional optical fiber-based bearer network transmission faces problems such as high cost, long deployment cycles and poor flexibility. 

Wireless backhaul, which is a means for connecting broadband sites to the core network in a wireless manner, may well tackle the corresponding challenges.

Global broadband sites using wireless backhaul technology will reach 62 percent of the total by 2023, according to an industry report.

As a new spectrum technology, terahertz communication can provide larger transmission bandwidth and meet higher-speed transmission requirements, and it has gradually become one of the key technologies of 6G communication, according to CASIC.

Eventually, the peak rate of 6G communication will reach 1Tbps, and it is necessary to further improve the utilization rate of existing spectrum resources to achieve higher wireless transmission capabilities, experts said.

In the future, this technology can also serve the field of short-distance broadband transmission of 10 meters to 1 kilometer, providing support for high-speed transmission in lunar exploration, fire detection landers and cruisers, cableless bus transmissions inside aerospace vehicles and other aerospace applications, the statement said.

Moreover, the new technology will provide information support for China's deep space exploration and the research and development of new spacecraft.