Connecting Everything Vital to Sustainability Mobile network evolution has followed a reasonably predictable path almost entirely focused on the needs of human communication. The transition from 1 to 2G was dictated by the economics of reliability, performance, and scale, whilst 3, 4, and 5G saw the transition to mobile computing with full internet access, AI and an ever-expanding plethora of applications. But 5G could be the end of the line as cell-site energy demands have become excessive at ~10kW. Midway between the migration from 4G to 5G, M2M and the IoT machines overtook the human population of 8Bn people with near (estimated) 20Bn devices. Current IoT growth rates suggest a 40 - 60Bn population by 2030 to 2050. However, we present evidence that it could be far more ~ 1,000Bn ‘Things’. This is based on the observation of the number of IoT components populating modern vehicles, homes, offices, factories and plants, along with smart ‘human implants’ and ‘smart bolts’ plus the instrumentation of civil; structures. The bold assumption that 5G would be a dominant player in the IoT is now patently one of naivety and the world has become far more complex with over 10 wireless standards currently in use. So, this poses the question; will 6G rise to the challenge? We see this as highly unlikely as the diversity of need is extremely broad, and we propose that it could be the end of tower based networks for a lot of applications. A migration to mesh-nets, UWB and (Hyper Wide Band) for the IoT at frequencies above 100GHz seems the most obvious engineering choice as it allows for far simpler designs with extremely low power at sub $0.01/device cost. 5G is already on the margins of being sustainable, and a ‘more-of-the-same’ thinking 6G can lonely be far worse!

1. THE FUTURE OF
MObile networks
Connecting everything
vital to sustainability
Professor Peter Cochrane
petercochrane.com

3. C l i m a t e c h a n g e
We are significantly changing the planet
Continued global warming will see a vast human cost including mass
migrations and the loss of life
We must address the causality out into extreme of the solution space
Panic and knee jerk measures will most likely worsen the situation
SADLY - politicians and decision makers never studied Thermodynamics
“No organism can live in
its own waste materials”

4. how did we
get here?
This is not a rhetorical
question !
It is important to frame
human and industrial
progression in order to
fully understand the
mechanisms at work…
… o u r i n d u s t r i a l
p r o g r e s s i o n i s n o
accident it is a causal
outcome of need and
demand!

5. G R E A T E R
E F F I C I E N C Y
Pol ishing what
w e a l r e a d y
hav e o nly puts
off the day of
j u d g e m e n t ; i t
can but buy u s
s o m e e x t r a
ti me…but it is
not eno ugh!

6. Ecosystem destruction on
a global scale
We have to find new ways
of living, working, and
doing
Waste must be reduced/
eradicated
“There is no such thing as waste
only resources we have not
exploited yet”
Axiom - Cochrane
We have to
stop doing
This!

7. G r e e n E n e r g y
G e n e r a t i o n i s n o t t h e
p r o b l e m , b u t s t o r a g e i s !
O u r b a t t e r y t e c h n o l o g y
i s e x p e n s i v e , i n e f f i c i e n t
a n d < 2 0 % o f t h e e n e r g y
d e n s i t y o f o i l …

8. T o T h e r e s c u e ?
D o w e h a v e a l l t h e t e c h n o l o g i e s

9. N e w M a t e r i a l
S t r o n g e r , l i g h t e r , t o u g h e r

10. N e w M a t e r i a l
S e l f - r e p a i r n o w a r e a l i t y

11. AI - and our dire need
A c c e l e r a t i n g c o m p l e x i t y b e y o n d h u m a n k i n d
T h e r m o d y n a m i c s : t h e r e
a r e n o s i m p l e s o l u t i o n s t o
c o m p l e x p r o b l e m s … a n d
w e n e e d h e l p !
“ A s y m b i o t i c r e l a t i o n s h i p
w i t h o u r t e c h n o l o g i e s w i l l
d i c t a t e o u r f u t u r e
p r o g r e s s ”

12. A future based on new
m a t e r i a l s , s c i e n c e s ,
technologies, engineering,
processes, automation,
robotics, intelligences and
thinking… centred on Nano
a n d B i o Te c h , A I a n d
Robotics BIO-TECH nano-TECH
Lower energy
Lower waste
Less friction
New materials
New industries
New processes
New capabilities
Multi-Disciplinary
hot spot for the 21C
AI
Robotics
I 4 . 0 k e r n e l
A m a n - m a c h i n e p a r t n e r s h i p

13. Everything produced & tracked:
material sourcing - refinement
supply- processing - testing -
QA - assembly - application
- use - distribution - sales -
ownership - maintenance
- repair - end of life - Reuse
- Repurpose, Recycle, some
form of positive disposal
Reuse, Repurpose, Materials
Recovery, Recycling has to be at
a very low energy cost and a low
loss of base materials…
BIO-TECH nano-TECH
AI
Robotics
I o T O r c h e s t r at i o n
I n v i s i b l e r e s o u r c e m a n a g e m e n t
IoT

14. 6G
5G
4G
3G
2G
1G 2G 3G
2.5G
Voice/human centric
Same tech genome 3.5G
~9 years
~9 years
~9 years
~9 years
4G 5G
Data centric
New genome
6G
Machine/Smarts centric
Radical genome !
7G? ~10 - 20kW
~3kW
~1kW
~0.5kW
G
r
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r
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H
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P
o
w
e
r
C Y C L E
E s t a b l i s h e d <<100kW
??

16. D U M B t o S M A R T
Wired L AN to wireless
All sensors linked to
a c e n t ra l p ro c e s s i n g
a n d c o m m u n i c a t i o n
hub as a part of the
I o T, v i a a n d i n d i re c t
& aggreg ati ng p ath

17. m a n y va r i A n t s

18. Wheel Futures
Passive-Active
Assembled ??
Printed ??

19. - Materials inventory & suppliers
- Production process detail
- Vehicle compatibilities
- Full logistics record
- Storage histories
- Handling details
- History of use
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Stress
- Failures
- Repairs
- Disposal
- Recycle
- Reuse
- +++
- Dynamic element of a vehicle
- Performance optimisation
- Parameter adjustment
- Pressure adaptation
- Suspension trim
- +++
D U M B t o S M A R T

20. PRINTABLES
Cost /unit ~ $0.01
Power/unit ~ 0.1uW

21. Production
Localised facilities cut down
on component part logistics
cost with bulk powders/fluids
shipped direct to small shops
…the potential for transport
saving here is vast…
… s h i p p i n g d e s i g n s a n d
s p e c i f i c a t i o n s i n s t e a d o f
products is the next big step
for globalisation…
Plastic
Metal
Po w d e r
Delivery
Small
Local
Company

22. C Y B O R G
C h i p I m p l a n t s

23. c h a l l e n g e
Blue Tooth
Short Range
Vehicle to Vehicle
3, 4, 5G
Long Range
Vehicle to Net
Vehicle to Cloud
SatCom
Broadcast
Conflicted tech?
Long and short range
Cross channel interference
Mixed wireless systems
New Standards
Short Range
Vehicle Sensing/Radar

24. w a r e h o u s i n g
Automated with wireless technologies
S e n s o r s
Near Field Tagging
F a r F i e l d Ta g g i n g
A g g re g a t e d B o x i n g

25. S M A R T T H I N G S
We hav e to plan for >1Bn IoT popul at ion

26. c h a l l e n g e s t o c o m e !
There is no one solution capable of connecting >1Bn Things

27. whERE are we?
Plus 3, 4, 5, and 6G to come!
“We need new technologies to
deliver more for <<$1.0/item”

28. what might we do
We must assume a clean sheet !
If we went truly digital
If we abandoned bands
If we abandoned channels
If we adapted digital thinking
No licences
No controls
No regulation
No government
Might it lead to a world of
“We cannot realise the gains
on offer for sustainability by
applying old frameworks and
thinking to the IoT”

29. A radical view ?
We have no digital radios - only analogue bent to our digital will!
“To deliver the vision means a lot of new thinking”

30. no spectrum fAmine !

31. Mostly unused
Cities 100% allocation
~20% or less usage <1GHz
no spectrum fAmine !

32. Open (spectrum) Season !
O2
O2
H2O
H2O
Occupancy <10% Occupancy <0.10% Occupancy <0.01%
A natural
fi
lter for high
density short distance
networking

33. band / channel wastage
960
Operator 1 Operator 2 Operator 3
MHz
W/m2
µ
950
940
0.01
0.001
0.1
100
10
1
960

34. London location
BandWidth
S/N
t
Signal space visibly available in
every dimension of channel
and band - to be used/
exploited by Spread Spectrum
across as wide a frequency
range as possible…
Sub-optimal use of signal space

35. Water
Oxygen
Water Water
Oxygen
spectrum PAST AND future
The Old
Analogue Root
Long Distances
Low Bandwidth
Complex Coding
Bands & Channels
Global Constraints
Country Regulated
Spectrum Planning
Licensed Control
Policed Operation
Digital Root
Short Distances
High Bandwidth
Simple Coding
No Bands
No Channels
Licence Codes
No Spectrum Plan
The New

36. S/N dB
BW Hz
Duration
T seconds Information transmitted over a channel expressed as a volumetric
function of S/N, BW and Time - aka Claude Shannon 1945/46
I = B.T log2(1 + k.S/N)
I ~ B.T.K.S/NdB
v
v
Back to basics!
Spread Spectrum
allows us to fill this
volume !
The theoretical limit
for a channel can
also be applied to a
band !
By the application of
a little engineering
licence !!

37. S/N dB
BW Hz
Duration
T seconds
For real time communication we can in
general only trade BW and S/N, but for
non-real time we can also include T as
a third variable….
An oft forgotten trade off!
Information transmitted in different modes of S/N, BW and T

38. M o r e R a d i c a l
Banding serves no useful purpose?
Water
Oxygen
Water Water
Oxygen
Signal spread to be
below the noise level
60GHz Band = 7 GHz
57 - 64 = 7GHz
50 - 300 = 250GHz
Extreme Ultra WideBand
could see 50 - 300 GHz
used with occupancy
dynamically determined
by node spacing - a with
the need for signal
f o r m a t t i n g / c o d i n g
reduced by the spread
spectrum occupy of the
signal space used to
maximal efficiency…

39. Lower energy demands = smaller size and longer up times
Advantage sans bands, channels controls
m a s s i v e s p r e a D s
G r e a t e r t o l e r a n c e t o p h a s e n o i s e
Simpler synch/training sequences
Greater interference immunity
Simpler modulation/coding
Better spread efficiency
G r e a t e r a d a p t a b i l i t y
Less overall power
Faster synch lock
Higher bit rates
Higher utility
Better S/N
>100GHz on chip antenna arrays may deliver massive gain

40. BW ~ 500MHz
No analogue elements - mixers, amplifies, filters ++
From UWB
To HWB Hyper Wide Band
BW ~ 50GHz
1bit/Hz
0.01bit/Hz
H y p e r s p r e a d s
>20dB reduction in signal level

41. Impossible to model, manage and police ??
N e w N e t w o r k s

42. T h a n k Y o u
www.petercochrane.com
“Things that Think want to Link
and
Things that Link want to Think”