What is Information Theory's Role in 6G?
Few technologies have been as transformative as quickly as the mobile Internet, characterized by the global 4G and 5G cellular networks, as well as pervasive WiFi. Few engineering disciplines have benefited as much from strong theoretical underpinnings as has the wireless communications field, whose origins in and continuing partnership with information theory have enabled this crowning human achievement of global real-time connectivity. As we approach 2030 and the 6G era, not to mention the 80th anniversary of Shannon's 1948 thunderbolt, wireless systems are becoming ever more complex as well as indispensable to a large variety of human endeavors. Some consider wireless to be an increasingly mature and established technology field, without many unresolved and pressing theoretical questions. Are they right?
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