Special issue: Telecom evolution toward 6G

Spotlight on telecom evolution toward 6G

Mobile broadband has quickly become the most common way to access the internet worldwide, transforming the lives of billions of people and enabling new technologies, services and business models to thrive. Where will telecom evolution take us next?

Standardization has been essential to the development of the mobile miracle right from its earliest days, with Ericsson playing a leading role in the process from the first generation of mobile technology all the way to 5G and beyond. Now, as 6G begins to take shape, we are deeply involved in the architecture planning and other preparatory work for the emerging standardization.

3GPP release 18 represents an important first step toward 6G. A major evolution of the 5G System, the 3GPP has decided to brand Rel-18 as the first release of 5G Advanced. Among other improvements, it will include major enhancements in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality that will enable highly intelligent network solutions that can support a wider variety of use cases than ever before.

Looking further ahead, we are convinced that early alignment on the key architectural principles of the future 6G network architecture has the potential to deliver a wealth of benefits to players across the telecommunications ecosystem. Reaching such an agreement prior to the start of 6G standardization will both simplify and focus the standardization process, make it easier for communication service providers (CSPs) to leverage existing investments and ultimately enable early monetization.  

At Ericsson, we are strong advocates of a single-step migration to 6G based on a new standalone 6G radio-access technology that is available on all needed spectrum bands and connected to a core network for 6G based on an evolution of the 5G Core. We believe that the focus of 6G standardization must be on the interfaces, network functions and services that are relevant for multi-vendor deployments.

The 6G platform presents significant new monetization opportunities for CSPs by making it much easier to provide additional value-adding services that go beyond communication, as well as speeding up the introduction of differentiated/customized communication services. The ability to quickly create and expose new services will make 6G a powerful platform for developers to realize 6G use cases such as immersive communication.

AI is certain to play an important role in telecom evolution in the years ahead, largely due to its unmatched ability to accelerate automation. When it comes to RAN systems, Ericsson believes that the most efficient approach to integrating AI is a pragmatic one based on generalization and scalability of learning.

We hope you enjoy this special issue of our magazine and that you will share our insights with your colleagues and business partners. You can find both PDF and HTML versions of all the articles at: www.ericsson.com/ericsson-technology-review