Time-Frequency-Space [6G R21]

Current expectations are that official specifications work on 6G standards will start around 2025. Anticipating to support use cases requirements in 2030 and beyond, the first 6G standard Release 21 will need to be completed and ratified by early 2028. 
  • 6G Workshop [Mid-2024]
  • Relese 20 includes Study Items for 6G [July2024 - Sept. 2026]
  • Release 21 includes Work Items for 6G [i.e. first 6G release by early 2028]
  • Release 21 will be ready in 2029 for submission for IMT-2030 with self-evaluation

6G Ultra-flexible perspective

The upcoming 6G communications systems are expected to support an unprecedented variety of applications, pervading every aspect of human life. It is clearly not possible to fulfill the service requirements without actualizing a plethora of flexible options pertaining to the key enabler technologies themselves. At that point, it is necessary to identify potential 6G key enablers from the flexibility perspective, categorizes them, and provides a general framework to incorporate them in the future networks. Furthermore, the role of artificial intelligence and integrated sensing and communications as key enablers of the presented framework is also pointed out.In a given network, achieving flexibility is mainly dependent on three capabilities: awareness, availability of a rich set of technology options, and adaptation & optimization. Therefore, 6G systems need to extend the current flexibility by 
  • exploring the awareness for the different aspects of the whole communications network and environment,  using different sensing mechanisms including 
  • enriching technology options, and
  • providing optimum utilization of available options considering the awareness with practical sensing capabilities.
For 6G systems, some of the initial studies inherently analyze the relations between the future applications and prioritized requirements to propose candidate service types. 
  • The following list exemplifies potential 6G applications: drone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks, drone taxi, fully automated Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), remote surgery, health monitoring, e-health, fully sensensory VR and AR, holographic conferencing, virtual education, virtual tourism, smart city, smart home, smart clothes, disaster and emergency management, and work-from-anywhere. This list can be longer with more applications in the upcoming years. Most of the aforementioned applications were originally envisioned for 5G, however, they could not be practically realized. Therefore, it makes sense to address them first while developing the 6G networks.
  • General wireless communications requirements for the given application examples can be defined as: high data rate, high throughput, high capacity, high reliability, low latency, high mobility, high security, low complexity, high connectivity, long battery life, low cost, wide coverage, and more. The importance and priority of the requirements may change under different cases. Moreover, higher levels of performances need to be obtained in next generation systems while meeting the related requirements.
  • Since the requirement diversity is continuously increasing, more sophisticated service types are expected for 6G. Candidate service types are constituted by grouping applications with similar requirements. Examples can be given as Big Communications (BigCom), secure uRLLC (SuRLLC), Three-Dimensional Integrated Communications (3D-InteCom), Unconventional Data Communications (UCDC); ultra-High-Speed-with- Low-Latency Communications (uHSLLC); Long-Distance and High-Mobility Communications (LDHMC), Extremely Low-Power Communications (ELPC); reliable eMBB; Mobile Broadband Reliable Low Latency Communication (MBRLLC), massive URLLC (mURLLC), Human-Centric Services (HCS), Multi-Purpose Services (MPS). As it is seen from the names, some of the service types (e.g., SuRLLC, uHSLLC, reliable eMMB, MBRLLC, mURLLC, MPS) try to be more inclusive than the 5G service types to serve target applications. It is also possible to see more speci?fiic service types (e.g., BigCom, 3D-InteCom, UCDC, LDHMC, ELPC, HCS) in comparison with 5G.

6G communication is all about sixth-sense communication. It will be a three-dimensional technology, particularly time, space, and frequency.

The 6G Network of networks will include wide range of cell types, frequencies, and deployments.
Service-based architectures (SBA) have been in use in the software industry to improve the modularity of products. This really means that a software product can be broken down into communicating services so that the developers can theoretically mix and match services from different vendors into a single offering. The system architecture following the SBA approach is specified in 3GPP technical specification 23.501. In a future 6G architecture, the selected aspects of SBA design can be extended also to applicable parts of the RAN.

Latency components of split RAN.

The second phase of 6G research started at the beginning of May 2022. The next four years will be the most intensive in 6G research. At the time of mid-2026, 6G standardisation can be expected to be progressing at full speed. 

2022 year has been an exciting one for mobile communications. Not only did we see the completion of the third release of the 5G standard — 3GPP Release 17, but the work on 5G Advanced Release 18 has also officially begun. 5G Advanced will bring enhanced end-to-end 5G system capabilities enabling new levels of performance and efficiency, and it will continue to improve 5G experiences and expand to more connected devices through the rest of this decade. At the same time, the early vision for 6G is starting to emerge. The next-generation mobile platform is targeted to bring a large technology leap for 2030 and beyond. 6G will be more than a new radio, it is envisioned to be an innovation platform of synergistic technologies, including AI, sensing, security, green networks/devices, and more, which will enable sustained expansion of the Connected Intelligent Edge. At Qualcomm, we are driving longer-term research to lead the 5G Advanced evolution and establish the technical foundation for 6G.
Massive MIMO explores the spatial domain by using beamforming, spatial multiplexing and null forming. Massive MIMO provides the means for improved coverage, capacity, and user throughput of mobile networks by exploiting the spatial domain. This is achieved by using multi-antenna technologies such as beamforming, null forming, and spatial multiplexing (MIMO), that take advantage of specific channel and antenna array properties.The most important capability of Massive MIMO is to improve coverage on new and higher 5G frequency bands to enable the same coverage on the 5G bands as for 4G using the existing site grid.Massive MIMO offers higher capacity and a better user experience than a conventional solution using remote radio units (RRU) and passive antennas. Massive MIMO can carry increased traffic growth over a longer time period.
5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) is a technology aiming to enable 5G user terminals on or close to the earth’s surface to connect to non-terrestrial base stations located on satellites. We consider it to be a technology that has still to undergo much long-term evolution. 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) is a technology aiming to enable 5G user terminals on or close to the earth’s surface to connect to non-terrestrial base stations located on satellites. We consider it to be a technology that has still to undergo much long-term evolution.With the current evolution of NTN, two major directions became apparent with respect to use cases, architecture and possible technology aspects:
  • NR-NTN relates to the enhancement of 5G NR to incorporate non-terrestrial communications within the 5G system. Use cases follow the 5G services of eMBB in a short assessment. 
  • IoT-NTN has the background of NTN in extension of the general Internet of Things (IoT) by non-terrestrial connectivity. The difference to NR-NTN is its overall lower complexity. The radio link continues with the adaptation of NB-IoT for NTN connections; device and satellite complexity is less. Devices assumed to have a low complex antenna type, no specific polarization support or optional second RF chain and unlikely to have a specific beamforming methodology in operation at the UE entity. One primary characteristic of IoT-NTN is the lack of QoS support. Compared to NR-NTN the aspects of energy efficiency and power saving play a pivotal role.