The MIT chip paving the way for 6G

More than a technological evolution, a paradigm shift. A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's most prestigious universities and research centres, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US), and other universities has developed ainnovative transmitter chip capable of multiplying the energy efficiency of wireless communications, extending the range and battery life of connected devices. A breakthrough that could profoundly transform the Internet of Things (IoT) - i.e. the network of physical objects, such as household appliances, sensors, vehicles and industrial machinery, equipped with an internet connection and capable of collecting, transmitting and exchanging data with each other or with centralised systems - and lay the foundations for 6G, with immediate benefits and applications ranging from smart factories to connected homes.

The heart of this innovation lies in asignal modulation strategy capable of encoding data more adaptively than traditional schemes. The chip converts digital information into electromagnetic signals by exploiting a non-uniform 'pattern' of symbols that can adapt to rapidly changing radio channel conditions. This approach, called optimal modulation, allows more data to be transmitted while consuming less power and reducing the probability of errors.

Non-uniform modulation, while more efficient, tends to be more vulnerable to noise, especially in signal-crowded environments. So the new chip solves the problem by introducing a small but ingenious solution: adding extra 'filler' bits between symbols, so that each transmission has the same length. In this way, the receiver can precisely identify the beginning and end of each data packet, avoiding confusion between symbols and noise.

The innovation is based on an algorithm previously developed by the researchers, called GRAND (Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding), capable of 'guessing' the noise that hit the transmission and thus decoding the original message. In the new system, a version inspired by GRAND also handles the fill bits, correctly reconstructing the information without sacrificing the benefits of optimal modulation.

The chip, thanks to its compact and flexible architecture, achieved transmissions with a quarter the error rate of other optimal modulation methods, even surpassing traditional techniques. This came as a surprise to the researchers themselves, who are used to considering classical solutions as the 'gold standard' of wireless communication.