Introduction to 6G
The network capabilities are continuously evolving maintaining it’s capabilities as a platform for innovation enabling a greater immersive experience and addressing the increased dependability to the network for every day's life.
Ericsson’s 6G vision currently considers four inter-dependent angles for the system vision, i.e., driving forces, use cases, capabilities, and technology.
6G will be realized on a network platform that will be trustworthy, sustainable, cognitive, and provide limitless connectivity. Another key challenge will be to combine the many components, from cloud systems to applications, diverse devices and industrial systems.
Standardization of 6G is expected to start in 3GPP around 2024 targeting the first release of 3GPP specifications in 2028.
From a spectrum and migration perspective, 6G should support both public and non-public networks in a wide range of spectrum allocations and facilitate for spectrum sharing with 5G to permit operation in the frequency bands currently used by 5G to enable 6G and 5G to coexist in low-band, mid-bands and mmWave used by 5G today to enable a smoother migration from 5G.
There is need for additional spectrum in 6G to cater for capacity-demanding use cases with mobility requirements. In the early stages of discussions, the frequency range 7 – 15 GHz has high priority. Sub-THz spectrum (usually used to refer to the spectrum range between 90 GHz and 300 GHz) may be relevant in niche scenarios with extremely high data rates (e.g., Tbps) where wide-area mobility is not required, though sub-THz spectrum should not be prioritized at the expense of the centimetric range mentioned above.
To reduce complexity and to simplify migration from 5G to 6G, a single architecture shall be supported - stand-alone operation (i.e., no support for non-standalone). In addition, multiple unnecessary alternatives in other areas shall also be avoided. The intention being to simplify and make operations of 6G systems more efficient.
To further smoothen the introduction of 6G and for CSP’s to be able to monetize 6G from day one, the reuse of the industry's investments in 5G Core (5G-SA) should be considered. An evolved 5GC could support a new 6G RAT. A part of that evolution of 5GC also includes possibilities for optimizations and simplification of the Service Based Architecture, for example by reducing the dependency across NFs or removing unnecessary flexibility.
A wide range of communication services need to be supported on top of delivering MBB services, e.g.,
- critical communication, e.g., including sensitive needs in society and industries
- immersive communication, encompassing intense human and machine interaction
- massive communication, e.g., covering the future of large-scale digital twins
which calls for
- Real-time systems, to minimize, control and predict delays in connectivity, transport, and compute ensuring certain latency levels
- High-rate and high-capacity systems, to dynamically and in a controlled and predictable way deliver data rates according to the applications needs
- Service assuring systems, to satisfy expected levels of service by the network operator and the application provider
- Service coverage systems, delivering a service anywhere needed
Architecturally, this will require a high degree of observability and steerability throughout the network for proactive actions to be taken before it is needed, e.g., to meet NRAR (Network Reliability Availability and Resilience) criteria. Solutions to enhance energy efficiency for flexible and cost-efficient dense deployments will also be required.
The future network platform delivering 6G will provide applications with auxiliary services extending current offerings of exposed services (e.g., positioning) with novel services beyond communication, such as navigation and spatial awareness. These new services exposed by the network platform require an architecture with functions capable of collecting and distributing data through localization, sensing, mapping, and time synchronization.
Networks of the future will likewise be largely impacted by implementation technologies like being cloud-driven, data-driven and AI-native and as cloud and virtualization technologies continue to evolve, including also confidential computing, e.g. Trusted Execution.
Above implementation technologies will also require new ways of working, i.e., DevOps, DataOps, and MLOps, which will contribute to opening for more innovation.
Focus shall be on ensuring that a carefully selected set of interfaces shall be open, where benefits are clear and to stimulate the broader ecosystem.
With the required need for flexible deployment beyond the traditional cases, 6G will require increased automation in network management built on programmability and distributed intelligence in network employing cognitive practices and AI.
Functionality necessary to enable such an autonomous systems operation are: Zero-touch deployment, continuous performance improvements, etc. but also a need for being able to manage services by well-defined functional models, harmonized APIs, and by dynamic and fine-grained allocation of heterogenous resources.
Future networks must consider an end-to-end perspective of availability, reliability and resilience in addition to the robustness of 5GS networks. Such mechanisms may include additional development of internal functionality, cognitive deployments and deployment alternatives (e.g. dual network/dual UE) and ability to operate independently of global infrastructure.
On a final note, it can be foreseen that the number and types of devices will increase exponentially. The different types of devices will require catering to different ecosystems and evolve both in the broad use-case categories such as eMBB, IoT and Time-Critical Communication services as well as development of devices more disruptive to the network, e.g. XR devices.