6GV1: 6G Vision, Value and Impact
Wednesday, 9 June 2021, 16:00-17:30, Zoom Room
Session Chair: Diego Lopez (Telefonica, Spain)
Hexa-X the European 6G Flagship Project
Mikko Uusitalo (Nokia Bell Labs, Finland); Patrik Rugeland (Ericsson Research, Sweden); Mauro Boldi (Telecom Italia, Italy); Emilio Calvanese Strinati (CEA-LETI, France); Gino Carrozzo (Nextworks, Italy); Panagiotis Demestichas (University of Piraeus, Greece); Mårten Ericson (Ericsson Research, Sweden); Gerhard P. Fettweis (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany); Marie-Helene Hamon (Orange Labs, France); Matti Latva-aho (University of Oulu, Finland); Josep Martrat (Atos, Spain); Aarno Pärssinen (University of Oulu, Finland); Björn Richerzhagen (Siemens AG, Germany); Dario Sabella (Intel, Germany); Hans D. Schotten (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany); Pablo Serrano (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain); Giovanni Stea (University of Pisa, Italy); Tommy Svensson (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden); Elif Ustundag Soykan (Ericsson Research, Turkey); Gustav Wikström (Ericsson Research, Sweden); Volker Ziegler (Nokia Bell Labs & CTO, Germany); Yaning Zou (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany)
Hexa-X will pave the way to the next generation of wireless networks (Hexa) by explorative research (X). The Hexa-X vision is to connect human, physical, and digital worlds with a fabric of sixth generation (6G) key enablers. The vision is driven by the ambition to contribute to objectives of growth, global sustainability, trustworthiness, and digital inclusion. Key 6G value indicators and use cases are defined against the background of technology push, society and industry pull as well as objectives of technology sovereignty. Key areas of research have been formulated accordingly to include connecting intelligence, network of networks, sustainability, global service coverage, extreme experience, and trustworthiness. Critical technology enablers for 6G are developed in the project including, sub-THz transceiver technologies, accurate stand-alone positioning and radio-based imaging, improved radio performance, artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) inspired radio access network (RAN) technologies, future network architectures and special purpose solutions including future ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) schemes. Besides technology enablers, early trials will be carried out to help assess viability and performance aspects of the key technology enablers. The 6G Hexa-X project is integral part of European and global research effort to help define the best possible next generation of networks.
How to Make 6G a General Purpose Technology
Volker Ziegler (Nokia Bell Labs & CTO, Germany); Seppo Yrjölä (Nokia & Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland)
6G era and the post-pandemic future will be driven by the need and the opportunity to serve society and mankind in the 2030s by connecting the physical, digital and biological worlds. Novel use cases will provide value from augmenting human intelligence, creating new digital worlds and controlling the automatons for step change in efficiency and labor productivity and safety. We propose and explore a framework of 6G composite value from novel use cases as well as from 6G research, technology and architecture. Key components of the framework are input in terms of capital and labor, process and performance improvement, value output as well as ecosystem enabling parameters. Process and performance improvement will be driven by 6G enabling technologies such as pervasive Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, sub-Terahertz spectrum and new spectrum technologies, network co-design for radio sensing and communications and, technologies to cater for extreme connectivity requirements. A variety of innovations in 6G network architecture such as het-cloud transformation, leverage of specialized networks, radio access and core network convergence as well as novel security technologies for trust will be part of the anticipated technology push. Ecosystem enabling parameters will need to include open collaboration, vehicles of the shared economy such as open source as well as spectrum regulation aspects. Results indicate that 6G can be characterized as an emerging general-purpose technology being pervasive, having dynamism for continuous technical improvements, and enabling innovational complementarities across a wide range of industry sectors.
6G Network Architecture Vision
Xueli An (Huawei Technologies, Germany); Jianjun Wu (Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., China); Wen Tong (Huawei Technologies Canada Co., Ltd., Canada); Peiying Zhu and Yan Chen (Huawei Technologies, Canada)
6G is envisioned to be the universal ICT infrastructure that could bring overarching perspective for all industries. With such powerful infrastructure as the innovation backbone, the goal from connected things to connected intelligence will be fulfilled. IT and CT industries are slowly merged during the previous decades. It is the time to further embrace other advanced technologies in order to provide a better and pervasive platform for industry players, and help them to enter a new digital era with unlimited possibilities for future innovation. This paper will focus on the 6G network architecture and analyze the key potential paradigm shifts that could lead to a brand new generation mobile communication system.
Subsidiarity and Weak Coupling in Wireless Networks
Aarne Mämmelä (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland); Jukka Riekki (University of Oulu, Finland)
We propose the subsidiarity and weak coupling principles for developing the sixth generation (6G) self-organizing wireless networks. The principles are common in social sciences and control theory, respectively. This proposal leads to organizing the network as a hierarchy of interacting rational agents with vertical and horizontal weak coupling. The central agent provides a performance goal and constraints to the lower level agents that operate almost autonomously in this multi-agent system. The system has various favorable properties, including stability, reliability, and efficiency. Present self-organizing networks are usually distributed without any centralized controller. The lack of a common externally given goal may lead to low performance, staggering behavior, or even chaotic situations. In communications, each transmitter can be interpreted as a rational lower level agent. A principle resembling subsidiarity, the locality principle, is used, for example, in cellular automata, systolic arrays, and edge computing. Subsidiarity is also a solution for the tragedy of the commons where common resources are overused because the costs are divided equally among the users, often with some significant delay. We also provide a historical review that shows each idea’s origin because different disciplines use different terminology for similar concepts. Understanding the origins can reduce fragmentation and enhance scientific progress.
