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The Next G Alliance published Thursday its first “full deliverable”, according to the group’s management: a 49-page white paper which sets out its objectives for the development of 6G.
“That’s how we’ll define leadership in North America,” said Susan Miller, CEO of ATIS, the trade association supporting the effort. “The intention is to develop that leadership.”
At a high level, the white paper outlines six “bold” goals covering future global standards, 6G deployments, products, operations and services. The alliance tries to approach the development of technology early, not only from a technological point of view, but also from a regulatory, societal, environmental and geopolitical point of view.
“Competition with other regions of the world to be a leader in 6G will require policies that establish the building blocks necessary for private sector investment in the research, development and deployment of 6G networks,” the statement wrote. NextG Alliance. “While the next generation of wireless networks will build on the work underway to support 5G networks, achieving the 6G leadership goal will pose additional challenges in areas such as spectrum requirements, manufacturing base, workforce skills and infrastructure deployment.”
“Recognizing that these foundations take time to establish, one of the key missions of the Next G Alliance is to bring industry, government and academia to the table to start working on these policies much earlier in the day. the life cycle of innovation than what has been done for previous generations. “, added the group.
The white paper provides details on each of the alliance’s six focus areas and offers recommendations to stakeholders. It’s “largely a blueprint,” explained Mike Nawrocki, vice president of technology and solutions at ATIS and general manager of the Next G Alliance. He described the band as “action-oriented”.
ATIS launched the Next G Alliance in 2020, and in 2021 brought together a diverse group of members, ranging from Apple to Verizon to the US Department of Defense. The publication of the group’s white paper marks its first concrete step towards 6G.
A North American Approach to a Global Problem
Of course, the Next G Alliance isn’t the only group developing a vision for 6G. Other companies, associations and governments around the world are doing the same.
“Regionalism is a theme right now,” acknowledged Miller of ATIS. “We are very aware of what regionalization could be.”
She also acknowledged that the Next G Alliance could be seen as a US counterbalance to China’s own investments in 6G. “We are very aware of where [Biden] The administration is on China,” she said.
“We understand that many other regions are defining their own vision for 6G,” Nawrocki said, explaining that the Next G Alliance is deliberately taking a North American approach. “It has to be a vision based on North American needs.”
Nawrocki acknowledged that there are growing fears that the United States and China will develop their own separate 6G specifications, but he said it was unclear if that would happen.
Doug Castor, an InterDigital executive who is the Next G Alliance’s vice president of 6G roadmap, said the group was developing a holistic view of the spectrum bands the technology could support. This is remarkable given the ongoing debate about possible 5G interference with some aircraft radio altimeters.
Castor said 6G will likely work on all spectrum bands in which 5G currently operates. He added that researchers are also investigating additional spectrum bands between 90 GHz and 300 GHz for 6G services.
“It takes some time to understand the available spectrum,” Castor said.
As such, Nawrocki noted that the Next G Alliance had already submitted a contribution at ITU-R, in response to a request to contribute to the association’s “IMT Vision for 2030 and beyond”. The ITU is an international organization that seeks to harmonize the use of spectrum in countries around the world.
Miller said ATIS expects standards groups like 3GPP to begin reviewing initial 6G specifications within the next two to three years.
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— Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G and Mobile Strategies, light reading | @mikeddano