While SK Telecom's 58-page document is extremely wide-ranging, there are some important messages which might get lost in the noise. This white paper doesn't only propose technical solutions but spells out a philosophy for how the telecoms market should approach 6G.
Architecture determines what and how the network services are provided, as well as the overall system efficiency, scalability, etc. This article proposes high-level designs of the 6G architecture. Three key innovation motivations are analysed and the gaps of 5G network are identified according to the operator's experience in real large-scale network deployment. Those observations help to generate the key “Design Principles” about the 6G architecture.
"In 6G standardisation it might be a good idea to listen to the needs of the non-public network clientele as this is the only sizable area of growth for the 3GPP ecosystem right now." In this guest post Heikki Almay, CEO of Poutanet, sets out some ideas for 6G architecture that might help make 6G a more marketable proposition.
Aided by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), novel solutions targeting traditionally unsolved RAN management issues can be devised. Nevertheless, the adoption of such smart and autonomous systems is limited by the current inability of human operators to understand the decision process of such AI/ML solutions, affecting their trust in such novel tools. eXplainable AI (XAI) aims at solving this issue, enabling human users to better understand and effectively manage the emerging generation of artificially intelligent schemes, reducing the human-to machine barrier.
The European networking research community has started a new program along with 33 projects on the Smart Networks and Service (SNS) programme that will focus on 5G advanced and 6G. The 5G/B5G Architecture Working Group (WG), as part of the 5G PPP Initiative, is identifying and capturing novel trends and key technological enablers for the realization of the 5G and 6G architecture. The main findings and results of the Architecture WG are now captured in this white paper, which presents a consolidated view from European perspective on the technical directions for the architecture design in the 6G era.