Evolution Towards IMT-2030
This Executive Forum is on the "Evolution Towards IMT-2030".
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This Executive Forum is on the "Evolution Towards IMT-2030".
INGR (International Networks Generation Roadmap) is a key component of IEEE Future Networks Initiative (futurenetworks.ieee.org). The first version of roadmap white paper was published in 2017 that led to the creation of 15 working groups. These working groups include Applications and Services, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Connecting the Unconnected, Deployment, Edge Services and Automation, Energy Efficiency, Hardware, Massive MIMO, Millimeter Wave and Signal Processing, Optics, Satellite, Standardization and Building Blocks, Systems Optimization, and Testbed. As the industry continues to advance, the evolution and deployment of network generations is influenced and impacted not only by emerging, evolving, and potential convergence of technologies, but also by local and world socio-economic and health conditions (and politics). So much can happen in a year, which is why the INGR is a living document that is updated annually. The inaugural INGR was released in 2020 and its focus was primarily on the evolution of 5G networks. The intention of the 2021 INGR Edition was to take a more end-to-end perspective that included integrating future network technologies and establish a transdisciplinary framework and a predictive model for mobile networks. 2022 and the next two years will be a time of heavy 5G deployment, transformation at the edge, and increased interworking of network technologies and systems. Hence, the 2022 Edition of the IEEE Future Networks International Network Generations Roadmap (INGR) points to trends, challenges, and solutions in the current and near-term mobile network landscape, and the future vision as being cultivated through the activities of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and the industry around the globe. This 2022 INGR Edition broadens applications of the transdisciplinary framework, progresses each technology and system challenges and opportunities especially while interworking with other areas - while noting lessons learned that can be applied to beyond 5G. As part of this panel, the working group co-chairs will share the highlights of various INGR technology working groups and how these will affect the evolution of next generation networks and deployments over varying timelines.
Random Numbers are needed to generate the essential seed for encryption in secure communication systems. If the randomness of the seed is compromised, this may eventually load to comprising the entire encryption method. The global cybercrime is expected to reach up to 10.5 Trillion USD by 2025. Furthermore, the demand for high rates of random numbers is also increasing as several billion IoT devices are getting connected to the Internet. A True Random Number Generator (TRNG) extracts entropy from physical phenomenon rather than mathematical algorithms like a PRNG, hence it is more reliable for seed generation. The state-of-the-art TRNGs are either limited in speed (up to 1.5 to 2 Gbps) or require very high power for high data rates (up to 200 mW) due to high static power consumption. However, high speed and low power are highly desirable in the next generation of 5G/6G communication systems and IoT applications.
There is a clear sense that AI can be a disruptive enabler to build a more agile and efficient future network. However, despite the constant efforts from researchers and engineers, the potential of AI is far away from being fully exploited and there's still a great gap between the current intelligence level of the network and our fancy expectations for it. Hence this panel is proposed to discuss the challenges and opportunities that we may face in "AI for 5G and beyond" exploration.
Simulation and emulation capabilities have significantly improved with the advances in compute power in the last few decades. Many applications are utilizing the power of enhanced simulation and emulation, but the wireless network quickly becomes an application that can maximize these tools due to its ever-increasing scope, scale and expanding requirements. As new network topologies are explored and the complexity of the network increases, these network tools can harness the capabilities of Digital Twins to evaluate wired and wireless network functions, design resiliency, and validate network design. This spike in complexity in network topologies is happening in tandem to the need flexible and adaptive research platforms that are capable of iterating and scaling from 5G to 6G and beyond in order to deliver novel technical results but still be useable by the larger research community. Digital twins, measurement and data fed simulations and models, offer an infrastructure to meet the rapid acceleration of design challenges that face a research ecosystem. Understanding the architectures, tools and methodologies for these model-based systems and being able to contrast them and utilize them with their physical counterparts will be integral in their use.
One of the new features of 5G currently being defined by the 3GPP standards body is NR-NTN. This feature hopes to achieve ubiquitous, or greater, coverage of 5G through space-borne or air-borne assets in areas that would not have coverage otherwise. Such a feature would be useful for ad hoc military networks on the battlefield, or for first responder applications, or for commercial and military usage across mountains, skies, or seas. As this feature is currently in the standards development phase, prototypes with commercial off-the-shelf devices are not yet available. However, with commercial off the shelf software and equipment, you can simulate NTN links in software and prototype them in hardware. A variety of NTN-based scenarios can be simulated. We will present the basis of NTN networks and how to prototype them for research and development.
MIMO technology has been a key technical component for LTE and LTE-advanced. Although a variety of MIMO modes, including open-loop MIMO, closed-loop MIMO, transmit diversity, spatial multiplexing, etc were supported by LTE, only limited number of antenna ports were assumed especially for early LTE deployment. To support C-band transceiver with more digital RF chains and millimeter wave transceiver with large number of antenna elements, massive MIMO has been considered as one of basic enabling technologies in designing NR system. Beamforming and beam management technologies, including high-precision CSI acquisition for MU-MIMO transmission, beam training and tracking, beam failure recovery have been designed and specified by NR standards. In order to meet 6G requirements new spectra such as 10~15GHz mid-band and high end mmWave & THz are being explored. On the other hand, the emergence of new materials (e.g. meta-surface material), advanced antenna array design technology, native AI learning and sensing capability provide us new enablers to achieve technology breakthrough in the research of 6G massive MIMO. It is expected that 6G ultra-Massive MIMO technologies will significantly increase system capacity for 6G network. The proposed panel will address new massive MIMO innovation opportunities and new challenges to researchers in academy and industry.
Wireless network cybersecurity has become a complex topic involving everything from physical-layer to network and application-layer techniques. Because the threat surface of 5G is larger than previous generations and because the technologies are so involved, we engineers dive into those complexities with detailed explanations and myriad acronyms (DDOS, MiTM, OpenSSL, SBA, SEAF, SEPP, SCAS, etc.). Because wireless security involves interwoven disciplines of radio, mobile networking, datacomms, and computer security principles, and even the sociological study of the anticipation of malicious behavior, experts in any one of these areas find at least one of the others difficult to grasp. Addressing security is also a mix of addressing security by specification, by design, by implementation, and by operational practice. This presentation will provide a fundamental framework for building understanding across these disciplines—especially between the wireless domain and the cybersecurity domain. From a design and measurement perspective, this talk will provide a practical foundation for both communities based on the context of two important perspectives: 1) Fundamentals for better understanding; 2) Proposals for a better approach to measure network security.
Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are complimentary to terrestrial network and expected to provide eMBB services to the areas where there are limitations. In recent years, this non-terrestrial industry has been evolving at an unprecedented speed. A couple of mega constellations have been initiated or planned in the coming years as the cost of launching rockets and rolling out satellites are hugely reduced, which make it possible to build mega (Low Earth Orbit) LEO/VLEO constellation. The emergence of low-cost mega LEO/VLEO constellations tends to be a game changer, since (i) their lower orbit altitude ensures a low latency close to that of a global cellular network and (ii) the scale of constellation provides much higher area capacity than a traditional satellite network. Both are crucial to providing eMBB services. The integration of NTN into terrestrial cellular networks is another important aspect in achieving truly global coverage, since it facilitates seamless roaming between cellular and non-terrestrial networks with a single device. The above-mentioned low latency, high capacity and seamless roaming will jointly contribute to a better user experience. However, a set of enablers are needed to realize the benefits of LEO/VLEO constellations. In this panel, we would like to invite experts from both industry and academia to shape the future of integrated mega constellation based network, deep dive the pain point of existing solutions and find out the potential research directions.
With the deployment of 5G networks and the start of standardizing 5G-Advanced, both academia and industry are exploring actively into future technologies for next generation wireless communication systems. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have been envisioned to reduce the energy consumption and improve the spectral efficiency of wireless networks by artificially re-configuring the propagation environment of electromagnetic waves. RIS-based transmission, in which the large number of small, low-cost, and passive elements on RIS only reflect the incident signal with an adjustable reflection amplitude and phase shift without requiring a dedicated energy source for radio frequency processing, decoding or encoding, is completely different from existing active relays and open up a new area of research for wireless communications. RISs are being discussed actively in regional and global standardization development organizations and are likely to become a critical component of 5G-Advanced networks.
6G research is on the way, and one element in 6G is ‘new spectrum’ in order to be able to cope with the ever-increasing mobile data traffic. The visible light and infrared spectrum is 2600 times larger than the entire radio frequency spectrum. Visible light communications and LiFi are therefore, target technologies in 6G. Crucially, the optical spectrum already underpins our data backbone through the massive deployment of core and metro networks. Consequently, there are optical devices that are optimized for high-speed communications. Although the step of taking this spectrum into the wireless world seems straightforward and logical, there are a few fundamental challenges that need to be overcome. This course will describe these challenges and will offer solutions based on more than two decades of research in VLC, and even longer research in infrared optical wireless communications. We will go on to provide a general background to the subject of optical wireless communications, followed by a brief summary of the history of visible light communication VLC and wireless infrared (IR) communication. We will discuss the relationship between VLC and LiFi (light fidelity), introducing the major advantages of VLC and LiFi and discuss existing challenges. Recent key advancements in physical layer techniques that led to transmission speeds greater than 100 Gbps will be discussed. Moving on, we introduce channel modelling techniques, and show how this technology can be used to create fully-fledged cellular networks achieving orders of magnitude improvements of area spectral efficiency compared to current technologies. The challenges that arise from moving from a static point-to-point visible light link to a LiFi network that is capable of serving hundreds of mobile and fixed nodes will be discussed. We will also discuss the benefits of optical intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs). Finally, an overview of recent standardization activities will be provided given that a new LiFi standard, IEEE 802.11bb, is expected to be fully ratified by the end of 2022. Lastly, we will discuss commercialization challenges of this disruptive technology and provide results of pilot studies.
Please note that this is a recording of a course originally delivered on 25 May 2022. A certificate of completion or CEU certificate is not provided for viewing the recording of the course.
Wi-Fi and cellular networks carry most of the wireless access traffic together and will continue to do so. So far, the cellular network is mainly for wide-area coverage and mobility, while Wi-Fi is mainly for indoor use thanks to its much lower deployment costs. This divide-and-conquer approach succeeds because the combination of licensed spectrum for cellular networks and unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi enables different models of spectrum use, different business models and different wireless infrastructure owners. However, the traditional boundaries that differentiated earlier generations of cellular and Wi-Fi are blurring, with 5G NR-U supporting specific enterprise requirements. This is not just about the number of connections, but also for the range of use cases that will grow and in directions beyond those we can envisage today. What will happen for the Next-Generation Unlicensed Spectrum Technologies? This session will gather experts actively participating in the field of unlicensed spectrum of Wi-Fi and cellular networks. New use cases of unlicensed spectrum technologies will be discussed, from traditional telecoms to emerging vertical applications. Topics in scope of this session will also include new technologies for Wi-Fi 7&8, 5G and beyond, such as innovative access schemes and co-existence schemes, as well as the regulation aspects regarding the introduction of unlicensed spectrum into cellular networks. The session will also explore the possible future deployment and business models of the two technologies, especially in the vertical industry scenarios, as well as the complementary/harmonization between the two technologies. We expect a lively exchange of views, since the relationship between the two unlicensed spectrum technologies is a bit diverse. It is hoped that new research and development activities will be stimulated by such discussions that will help define future technology evolution and business models. From 5G NR-U to SL-U and beyond in 3GPP How does unlicensed spectrum with NR-U transform what 5G can do for you Next Generation Wi-Fi 7 and Beyond The role of unlicensed spectrum in 5G and beyond
With the recent deployment of commercial 5G systems, the technology evolution is moving towards more autonomous, self-configuring, intelligent networks and devices to support the new forthcoming data- and process-hungry applications of the next generation of the communication system. AI is considered a good fit for complicated non-convex optimization problems that are lacking optimal analytical solutions, and computation-intensive problems that are too costly to solve in real-time. Research works have provided promising results in applying AI in different use cases, ranging from physical- to application-layers, from edge- to core network-services and applications. Taking also into consideration the advances in big data computing technology, AI applied to the wireless domain has the potential to reshape the design and deployment of wireless networks and enable the formation of a self-adaptive, more power-aware, smart, and resilient communication ecosystem. In the proposed panel, we will explore and discuss the potentials and challenges of leveraging AI for the next generation of communication networks. Devices’ Role for AI-native 6G Networks, AI-driven Communication and Computation Co-design: the EU 6G Flagship Project Hexa-X Perspective AI-enabled Intelligent RAN Optimization AI/ML in 5G Evolution Toward 6G Strategic Standardisation for AI & Communications
In recent years, due to the development of innovative satellite launch vehicle technologies, the cost of launching and producing satellites has rapidly decreased. Consequently, a large number of operators have emerged to provide global communication services through low-orbit satellite clusters such as OneWeb, SpaceX, Project Kuiper, and Telesat. Also, the global market of unmanned aerial vehicles such as smart airlines, flying taxis (air taxis), and drones is expected to increase rapidly. The area of communication that provides Gbps grade internet service will be expanded to non-terrestrial networks (NTN) to support not only service enhancement and coverage extension on the ground, but also in a three-dimensional (3D) space and at sea. Therefore, terminals will be able to receive Gbps grade internet service anytime, anywhere. In order to provide such a service, B5G/6G NTN technologies for providing communication coverage in the 3D space are required beyond the limit of a ground-oriented mobile communication service. It is expected that it will be possible to provide reliable internet services to various moving vehicles in the air and on the ground through integrated satellite and terrestrial network technologies. The integrated satellite-terrestrial networks leverage on various technologies to make the architecture of heterogeneous networks operationally effective as seamless service coverage, robust service supporting ability, and high-efficiency performance. New handover schemes to tackle frequent handover due to satellite movement will be developed. The improvement of beam management will be required for mobility of satellites and aerial vehicles, long round-trip time (RTT), wide beam coverage, and various beam types. Antenna technologies for LEO satellite payload will be crucial. Also, the support of mobile edge cloud and edge intelligence through NTN connectivity will be important. 3GPP NTN Standardisation Roadmap Networks Detached from Ground – the Rise of NTN in 5G Advanced and 6G Taming Aerial Communications with 6G Smart Surfaces What about Satellite Communication in 6G? TIP's Open RAN Approach for Non-Terrestrial Connectivity Solutions
Full Duplex Radio (FDR) is one of promising radio transmission technologies toward 5G NR-advanced and 6G. The main benefits from FDR application are expected as spectral efficiency enhancement, radio link latency reduction, uplink coverage enhancement as well as mitigation of duplexing restriction issue for P2P and Communication/Sensor fusion, and so on. While the promised gain of FDR is expected to resolve the pain points for future wireless communication, there remains a doubt on technical maturity of FDR transceiver implementation in particular in terms of in-device self interference cancellation and inter-device cross-link interference mitigation/rejection capabilities. In addition, the way of implementation and the required KPIs for such capabilities in FDR transceiver may be different depending upon use cases and applied communication environments. In this session, the invited experts will briefly provide their view on FDR transceiver solutions and its application scenarios, and discuss the focused solution development topics and the expected phased approach in 5G NR-advanced and 6G.
Since the first commercial launch in 2019, 5G has grown to be core infrastructure for a wide range of industries. It has been used to support everything from high-quality communication, to smart factories, to vehicle-to-vehicle communication and a whole raft of other new services. Learnings from past 5G deployments and how they are dealt with within 3GPP will be discussed. While 5G is currently being commercialized, industry and academia are beginning research to shape the next generation of communication, namely 6G. In this talk, I will introduce a comprehensive overview of various aspects of 6G, including technical and societal trends, services, requirements and candidate technologies. In the 6G era, the main users will be both machine as well as human, leading to many new forms of advanced services, such as truly immersive extended reality, high-fidelity mobile holograms and digital twins. These new services will require a tremendous amount of real-time data processing, hyper fast data rates, and extremely low latency. The key candidate technologies to enable this includes THz communication and advanced duplex systems.
With the increasing impact of climate change globally, many nations have announced carbon neutrality goals by mid 21st century. As a leading industrial sector and a key driven force for social and economic progression/transformation, the ICT industry shall be a key contributor for global carbon neutrality and sustainable growth. In 4G and 5G, there have been efforts in making communications system more energy efficient such as minimizing always-on signaling, enable power saving mode, etc. But still, with the exponential growth of data volume, increasing complexity of communication systems, emergence of new services, we see a steady increase in power consumption over generations. As the industry started working on designing the B5G and 6G communications systems, sustainability and energy efficiency need to be considered as one of the foremost goals in system design. This session will gather experts to discuss green communications for B5G/6G. The discussion intents to address two main questions: 1) how to make the communication system itself more energy efficient and sustainable; 2) how can communication system better help the society and other industrials for achieving the global carbon neutrality goal. The session will discuss gaps, challenges and new air interface and network features needed in B5G/6G system to address these two questions. We expect a lively exchange of views as green communication is a very challenging and very important topic. It is hoped that new research and development activities will be stimulated by such discussions.
In the past few years, thanks to the steady advances in technologies, we have witnessed the exploding growth of mobile data rates and number of connected devices that are supported by the existing communication networks. However, the always increasing millions of mobile apps and billions of sensors connected to the Internet of Everything (IoE) are bringing the current systems to their limit. With the deployment of 5G systems around the world and the 5G Advanced definition currently underway in standards bodies, work has recently started in defining the use cases and new enabling technologies that will shape 6G, i.e., the next generation of communication networks. 6G systems will provide unmatched high-quality, low-latency, high-reliability wireless services across humans and machines anytime and anywhere. These high expectations require innovations and advanced intelligence built into the next generation networks. With the advances in big data computing technology, AI already shows promising potentials in wireless industry, and we expect it will play an even more crucial role in 6G wireless networks in tasks that cannot be presented by a mathematical equation or with high computation complexity. In this Session, industry experts and renown research leaders, with experience in leveraging AI to solve real-world wireless communication problems, are invited to share their insightful thoughts and recent works to address the challenges ahead of us and discuss AI research directions toward future 6G wireless communication systems. AI at the Edge AI-enhanced orchestration for 6G networks within the vehicular & mobility vertical Can AI make 5G and 6G Better?
This presentation will discuss two aspects of 6G Native AI support: AI4Net, using AI technology to improve network performance and Net4AI, providing AI as a service by the network as a whole. Recently 6G discussions on vision and enabling technologies have become hot topics in both industry and academia. AI for wireless has attracted even more research in the past few years. By now, it is well understood that AI can be useful to improve wireless network performance especially for tasks such as resource management, network planning and power saving where precise mathematical models are difficult to obtain. Standardization efforts are ongoing to facilitate these applications. Less conclusive is the application of AI in the physical layer design, even though we have seen various scenarios where AI can indeed improve the link level performance. Breakthrough research is needed in this area to warrant a radical new design. One the other hand, there are many usage scenarios being proposed for 6G, ranging from down to the earth 5G evolved use cases to over the moon (literally) space applications. In this talk, we will focus on AI as a service for 6G, in other words, 6G serves as a platform to provide distributed and collaborative AI learning and inference services. This is motivated by the proliferation of AI applications, data privacy concerns and regulations, as well as the need for real-time AI. The existing cloud base centralized AI learning model would not be scalable and sustainable, while on-device AI has limited computing capability and power. Distributed and collaborative AI is thus the key to large scale AI applications. A 6G network integrating sensing, communication, and computing would be a promising platform to support such distributed learning and inference AI services.