At the "6G Technology and Industrial Innovation Forum" of the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting recently, Professor Xu Xiaodong, Vice President of the Zhongguancun Open Research Institute of Next Generation Internet and a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, gave an interview. He interpreted the current status and future of China's 6G research and development by addressing hot topics including the fundamental differences between 6G and 5G, the development of 6G in Beijing, and the latest progress in semantic communication.
Xu noted that 6G is not merely a technical upgrade but an all-round expansion of user experience and industrial applications. As a key innovative technology for 6G, semantic communication has drawn wide attention for its latest advancements. Preliminary achievements have been made in the standardization of core semantic communication technologies both internationally and domestically.
On the international front, a research report on semantic communication was successfully approved as an ITU standard project in 2025. Within 3GPP, multiple standard proposals related to semantic communication have been adopted as typical 6G use cases. Meanwhile, technical verification of semantic communication has been carried out in various scenarios. Its advantages in improving communication efficiency and reducing transmission costs have been widely recognized by the industry, providing practical support for its standardization.