NGNM’s white paper is the first of a series that will strive to define 6G and its uses while avoiding grandiose claims about the impact of AI workloads on the network or AI running infra
AI, and especially AI in telecoms according to NVIDIA, is a huge theme at this year’s show with lots of operators, vendors and others signing up to the chipmaker’s vision of a new AI-native telecoms architecture.
Just ahead of the show, NGNM published a white paper, 6G Drivers and Vision which is more about standards and practicalities, new technologies’ roles in improving society and sustainability, and consumers’ expectations. The devil is always in the detail. The standards body helped pave the way for the mass adoption of 4G and 5G, and now plans to do the same for 6G.
It is not full of references to 6G as an AI-native architecture or how AI is going to be embedded everywhere in the network, from the RAN to core, or AI-RAN. The white paper does not make grand predictions about how AI workloads will impact the network – there is not even a mention of GPUs – but urges readiness and flexibility.
This echoes the approach of two of the prominent CT(I)Os from operator groups in Europe whom I have interviewed recently, including Vodafone’s Scott Petty and Swisscom’s Mark Düsener.
In the paper, mobile operators identify what they see as key drivers for 6G and outline their vision for it, the transition to networks that support differentiated services and the main challenges that must be overcome. In particular, it emphasises the need “for a healthy and unified global ecosystem and standards”.
In the paper, NGMN argues that the evolution of the mobile industry, and the underlying technologies, must be guided by the imperative to safeguard the three fundamental needs:
- Societal goals – future technologies should contribute to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) such as environmental sustainability, the efficient delivery of health care, a reduction in poverty and inequality, improvements in public safety and privacy, support for ageing populations, and managing expanding urbanisation.
- Operational necessities – making the planning, deployment, operations, management and performance of mobile operators’ networks more efficient.
- Market expectations – customers’ requirements need to be addressed with affordable new services and capabilities.
Personally, I always find this last one tricky because often we don’t know what we want because we don’t know what’s possible – who wanted an iPhone before 2007? Onthe other hand, stuff like wanting a network that always works is probably universal and NGMN is more about feet-on-the-ground rather than hot air.
Further, the white paper stresses that 6G must be differentiated from 5G, benchmarking any improvements, including pragmatic deployment scenarios (no doubt a reaction to all those silly things we thought operators would be making money from with 5G), bearing in mind “the law of diminishing returns”. The paper reckons that operators are well placed to understand users’ needs given their constant engagement with consumers, the public sector and enterprises of all sizes.
This is the first of a series of deliverables from NGMN that provide progressively more detail to support the high-level guidance provided in this inaugural publication.
