LG U+ and LG Electronics are exchanging key 6G technologies with 6G experts and accelerating their efforts to secure technological leadership.

The two companies announced that they held the "6G Tech Festa" at LG Science Park on the 17th, inviting experts from industry, academia, and research, as well as R&D partners. They exchanged key technologies and discussed future directions for 6G, the foundational technology for future businesses such as autonomous driving, mobility, and smart factories.

The event was attended by a large number of academic experts, including policy officials such as Jeong Chang-rim, policy director at the Ministry of Science and ICT, and current and former directors of the LG-KAIST 6G Research Center, Cho Dong-ho, KAIST professor Hong Seong-cheol, 6G Forum Executive Committee Chairperson Jang Kyung-hee of Inha University, and ORIA Steering Committee Chairperson Kim Dong-gu of Yonsei University. Partners including Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Keysight Technologies, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, National Instruments, Innowireless, and Samji Electronics attended.

In keynote speeches, Hong In-ki, professor at Kyung Hee University and chairman of the Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences, and Baek Yong-sun, director of the Stereoscopic Communications Research Institute at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, introduced the current status of 6G networks and frequencies and the future direction of 6G mobile communication technology development. Following this, Jeong Jae-hoon, research fellow at LG Electronics' CTO Division, and Lee Sang-heon, head of LG Uplus' Network Advanced Development Division, presented their respective visions for 6G technology and the achievements and current status of their major R&D initiatives to date.

LG Electronics exhibited various core 6G technologies, including: △a terahertz (THz) transmission/reception module that succeeded in 500-meter outdoor wireless transmission in an urban area; △full duplex communication, a single-source two-way data simultaneous transmission/reception technology; and △dynamic spectrum sharing, which flexibly utilizes frequency channels depending on signal interference situations.

Communication-based solutions such as 'Soft V2X', a traffic safety solution based on vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication used in autonomous driving, and 'Specialized Network Virtualization/Open LAN Solution' applied to smart factories also attracted attention.

LG U+ showcased various key element technologies for activating 'Open LAN', an open wireless access network, and 'Powerless RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface)', which efficiently expands frequency coverage. Next-generation network infrastructure technologies were also introduced, including solutions for measuring the quality of urban air traffic (UAM) airspace networks and the current status of research and development on satellite network optimization using quantum computers.

LG Uplus and LG Electronics said, “We expect that this exchange, which involves building a broad R&D ecosystem and discussing directions from the initial stage of developing core technologies, will lead to the competitiveness of future businesses that will be introduced in line with the full-scale launch of the 6G era.”

LG Uplus Network Division Vice President Kwon Jun-hyeok said, “We expect 6G to become an essential infrastructure that can provide customers with new values such as artificial intelligence, computing, and sensing without location constraints, going beyond the limitations of mobile communications.” He added, “We will continue to strive to differentiate customer experiences in the coming 6G era.”

LG Electronics CTO (Chief Technology Officer) Vice President Kim Byung-hoon said, “6G is one of the core technologies for future businesses, and I expect that the 6G technology capabilities established by LG Electronics through this event will develop into capabilities for the entire group.” He added, “We will continue to cooperate with various R&D partners and solidify our technological leadership.”