In 2019, Liu Dongjie first visited the Zijinshan Laboratory. Little did he anticipate that within six short years, Nanjing would rise to become the global hub for 6G technology.

The journey begins with a memory of being "choked" by technological constraints.

In the 2G era, there were significant technological gaps; in the 3G era, we adhered to foreign standards; in the 4G era, we had just crossed the threshold when the international patent war struck – it was not until 5G achieved technological synchronization that China's communications industry truly shed its reliance on paying patent fees to survive.

As a senior engineer in the field of communications, Liu Dongjie joined the laboratory in the year when China officially launched the 6G special project. At that time, the Zijinshan Laboratory, which had only been established for a year, listed 6G as its core research direction. Nanjing, as the sole city in the Yangtze River Delta that simultaneously undertakes the National Future Network Test Facility (CENI) and overall 6G technology research, holds a unique position as a "strategic scientific and technological force".

You Xiaohu, the current director of the Zijinshan Laboratory, whose research career is a testament to China's counterattack in communication technology. This "leader of Chinese communications" who has been at the forefront for over 30 years knows well that true technological sovereignty must be forged in uncharted territories.

6G is a prime example. Compared to previous generations of communication technologies, its uniqueness lies not only in faster transmission, lower latency, and higher reliability but also in breaking down the technological barriers between communication, perception, computing, and AI. For researchers at the laboratory, creating the world's fastest communication equipment is just the beginning; they must also figure out how to bring this technology from the lab to more industries.

"Technical barriers are just the first hurdle. When 4G was commercially deployed, no one anticipated it would spur the great prosperity of the mobile internet; 5G's rollout unexpectedly ignited live e-commerce; so, where will 6G find its real-world applications?"

Recently, the Global 6G Conference was held in Nanjing, where the Zijinshan Laboratory unveiled the world's first 6G communication-intelligence-sensing integrated field test network, bringing laboratory technology into real-world scenarios for testing.

In Liu Dongjie's view, this is merely the dawn of a new era. 6G is not just a technological application problem but also an open-ended exploration of the future industrial ecology of cities. Today, the possibilities hidden behind those technical parameters are growing in tandem with the city of Nanjing.

01

From Lab to Industry: Nanjing's "6G Equation"

As a communications expert, Liu Dongjie feels a strong sense of belonging to Nanjing. He candidly states that if one observes closely, Nanjing excels in nurturing emerging industries. To a certain extent, this is closely tied to the city's underlying character.

In recent years, discussions about 6G have emerged endlessly in the market, but there is a lack of a unified explanation for both the technology itself and its conceptual interpretation. People's expectations for 6G have shifted from simply continuing the evolution of previous generations of communication technologies to a more disruptive, sci-fi-like user experience.

In Liu Dongjie's view, compared to 5G, which allows individual users to enjoy the convenience of ultra-fast internet access, 6G's high reliability, ultra-low latency, and high-precision positioning are inherently more suited to solving specific problems in industrial scenarios.

"The biggest challenge with 6G is not just the standard; it's also finding the right application scenarios." Liu Dongjie explains that just as smartphones in the 4G era activated the mobile internet, the breakthrough for 6G is likely hidden in yet-to-be-discovered scenarios, requiring collaboration among cities, industries, and laboratories.

Accompanying this "uncertainty" is the daily routine of every researcher at the Zijinshan Laboratory, but precisely because of this, the work becomes even more intriguing.

Almost 90% of their time is spent in the laboratory adjusting equipment and optimizing algorithms, meticulously analyzing the signal curves on the screen; the remaining 10% is spent carrying equipment and diving into real-world scenarios – it might involve setting up a base station by Taihu Lake at night to record signal changes in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) beyond-visual-range communications, or running back and forth with cranes in the port container area to calculate the positioning system's error.

Liu Dongjie describes this process as feeling one's way across a river by touching stones. Due to the limitations of early hardware conditions, many technological visions get stuck in the last mile. Their carefully designed solutions are often shelved due to insufficient hardware reliability and substandard basic material properties. When encountering critical problems, they sometimes need to work through the night. Liu Dongjie told "New Eyes" that "the significance of our research is to solve most of the 6G challenges within the laboratory. Only then can we be more confident when it is truly implemented in the industry."

Currently, 3GPP has a relatively clear plan for the rollout of 6G: integrated communication and sensing, integrated communication and intelligence, ubiquitous access, massive connectivity, ultra-low latency and high-reliability communications, and immersive communications.

Essentially, it aims to upgrade 6G from a single "connection tool" to a digital infrastructure that integrates perception, intelligence, and ubiquitous services, focusing on solving key challenges such as industrial efficiency, device coordination, and coverage in extreme scenarios.

According to Liu Dongjie, focusing on the characteristics of 6G, the Zijinshan Laboratory has conducted multi-scenario tests. Taking port logistics as an example, the deviation in container lifting caused by traditional positioning technology is significantly reduced by the 6G system. Actual measurements show that while the risk of cargo damage is minimized, the operating costs of enterprises are also significantly optimized.

Similar efficiency improvements are also seen in scenarios such as sensor coordination in smart factories and precise scheduling of UAV logistics:

Data from the pilot region in the Yangtze River Delta shows that low-altitude logistics and distribution reduce costs and increase efficiency, and airport security's response speed to illegal aircraft is several times faster than traditional radar. In terms of autonomous driving, ultra-low latency communication for vehicle-road coordination acts as a "telescopic eye" for driverless cars; even network lag on ocean liners and signal dead zones in mountain explorations can be improved through space-ground integration technology.

More importantly, these achievements are not merely theoretical but are verified through a "general control center + multiple test sites" validation system, such as Taihu's ultra-long-distance fishery resource protection and Qinhuai's ultra-large-capacity urban and rural comprehensive governance.

From this perspective, Nanjing's 6G exploration breaks the traditional path of "technology preceding demand", forming a process that starts with defining technology research and development directions based on industry pain points, uses real-world scenarios to validate and drive technological iteration, and ultimately realizes the application of industrial scenarios.

02

Why is Nanjing the Global Hub for 6G?

When we talk about world-class industrial landmarks, we often think of Silicon Valley's semiconductor legend and Detroit's automotive industry myth. The commonality of these cities lies in establishing a complete closed loop from technology research and development to industrial ecology in a key field, proving the power of "professionalism" over decades.

But for the city of Nanjing, people often think of the paddle sounds and light shadows of the Qinhuai River and the historical weight of the Ming City Wall. Compared to Hangzhou refreshing the city's image with AI and Shenzhen building clusters with the internet, Nanjing's fast iteration and slow cultivation urban atmosphere precisely provides a nurturing environment for these new technologies.

Nanjing's communication genes began with globalization in the last century. At that time, while most cities in the country were busy introducing color TVs and automobile assembly lines, Nanjing chose to undertake communication research and manufacturing for Ericsson and Motorola.

Although assembly can quickly stimulate GDP, it is essentially labor-intensive incoming material processing; whereas the communication industry covers the complete chain from chip design, protocol standards, to system integration, belonging to the technology-intensive "long-cycle racetrack". Once technological accumulation is formed, it can generate a continuous industrial radiation effect.

These decisions, which seemed "unsexy" at the time, laid the groundwork for this ancient city to connect with the global communication industry chain to a certain extent.

It is understood that Nanjing once undertook 40% of Ericsson's global supply volume. Unlike a pure manufacturing factory, the software center gathered a vast pool of communication protocol and embedded system research and development talents. They brought not only technical standards but also allowed local enterprises to understand the logic behind communication equipment manufacturing, which also accelerated the scientific research progress of universities represented by Southeast University, targeting hardcore areas including "baseband chips" and "radio frequency devices".

In other words, compared to relying on demographic dividends and land resources to develop labor-intensive industries, Nanjing has blazed a unique development path of "technology-intensive + globalization-oriented" by leveraging the scientific research reserves of universities and the manufacturing base of the Yangtze River Delta.

I still remember that in 2001, TD-SCDMA became an international 3G standard, with the core technical team hailing from You Xiaohu's laboratory at Southeast University. Since then, China has had an international voice in the 3G era. In the decade that followed, the city once again welcomed a key node. With the explosion of the mobile internet wave, Nanjing once again focused on the layout of the future network industry – the predecessor of 6G, "future network technology".

At that time, this step was considered a "risky move".

Compared to e-commerce, social platforms, mobile applications, and other trends, future network research and development not only has a long cycle but also requires continuous investment of a significant amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. It also necessitates considering multiple aspects such as upstream and downstream industrial chains, standard setting, talent cultivation, and introduction.

In hindsight, Nanjing made the right move. With the future network test facility rising to a national strategy, the issuance of China's 5G commercial license, and the initiation of the construction of the Zijinshan Laboratory with 6G as one of its major scientific research tasks, Nanjing finally ushered in its moment of harvest.

Just like Silicon Valley completed the technological relay from Shockley Laboratory to Fairchild Semiconductor before the rise of the semiconductor industry, Nanjing's 6G advantage is also the result of decades of growth and development.

"Southeast University has the country's first State Key Laboratory of Mobile Communications, and Wireless Valley gathers top scientific research institutions such as the Zijinshan Laboratory." In the view of Wu Hequan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Nanjing's talent pool and industrial base are the main reasons supporting it to become a 6G highland. "Even though many cities have the foundation for developing the communication industry, it is difficult to compare with Nanjing's current advantages."

Some industry experts attribute this success to Nanjing's resilience. Unlike Detroit, which relies on a single giant, or Silicon Valley, which is completely market-driven, Nanjing values those long-cycle racetracks that can produce chemical reactions with local genes. Reflected in the city's comprehensive strength, even facing fluctuations in the global industrial chain, Nanjing still maintains a key position.

03

What Does 6G Mean for Nanjing?

Over the past decade, China's communication industry has faced the triple challenges of low technological added value, fragmented standards, and inefficient industrial chain coordination. For instance, the industry's mainstream "terahertz communication + satellite-terrestrial integration + wireless AI" technology system, although covering most application scenarios, has technological iterations mostly limited to parameter adjustments. Some enterprises have even fallen into the dilemma of "technology for technology's sake".

In Liu Dongjie's view, the key to breaking this dilemma lies in breaking out of the technology-centric mindset. As mentioned earlier, the competitiveness of 6G is essentially an engineering adaptation capability.

"There is no one-size-fits-all solution for true industry-level 6G applications, whether it is the low-altitude economy, industrial internet, or marine communications. What 6G needs to do is serve those critical scenarios."

Taking Nanjing-based NARI Group as an example, its application practice in the field of power distribution networks demonstrates that 6G's ultra-low latency and high reliability characteristics can accurately address communication challenges in distribution network protection, providing crucial support for industrial production safety.

It is worth mentioning that while other cities are still competing on technical indicators, Nanjing has already woven an industrial ecology network. Through differentiated regional division of labor, the city has formed a multi-polar linkage development pattern:

Jiangning leverages the Zijinshan Science and Technology City to forge an information and communication industry cluster, while Jiangbei New Area concentrates on optical communication chips, reinforcing the hardware foundation with the integrated circuit industry. Xuanwu District delves into quantum computing, and Qinhuai District taps into central enterprise resources to cultivate satellite internet development.

The cohesive chain of "basic research - technological breakthrough - industrial application" constructed by various sectors has generated a siphon effect, drawing a significant influx of upstream and downstream enterprises related to network security, optical communication devices, and more.

At the 2025 Global 6G Conference, the term "industrial ecology" was incorporated into the conference title for the first time, marking a significant milestone for Nanjing. This signals that Nanjing's 6G development is officially progressing to a new phase of establishing an industrial ecosystem. This transformation signifies not only technological advancement but also a deeper stride in Nanjing's exploration as a "6G city".

As You Xiaohu puts it, "6G is evolving into an infrastructural cornerstone driving urban economic transformation. It has the potential to empower myriad industries, with capabilities anticipated to be one to two orders of magnitude greater than 5G."

Much like when Elon Musk focused on Starlink, many outsiders were initially puzzled. For Nanjing, the significance of 6G transcends technology itself. Whether it's addressing future communication demands, fostering aerospace industry growth, or being deployed in national defense, the city is discreetly contributing its developmental wisdom.

Reserved and unassuming, this embodies the unique, underlying character of Nanjing. In the forthcoming global competitions, Nanjing may not be the swiftest, but every step it takes is firmly grounded.