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EE|Times EUROPE 17

OPINION | BEYOND 5G, TOWARD 6G

We Need to Be Honest security for network slices. For the air inter-
face, there are also opportunities for new
About 6G spectrum allocation in the millimeter-wave
and terahertz-frequency ranges, with larger
available bandwidths but also a limited prop-
agation distance, so there will be a need to
By Michel Corriou, b<>com select the right use cases.

The reality is that the 5G
BEFORE TALKING ABOUT 6G, the industry must be honest
and recognize that 5G is still in its infancy. Only 5G-NR is com- technology currently or
mercially available and deployed today, and the transformation
process is ongoing on core network solutions. The reality is that the soon to be deployed is far
5G technology currently deployed or announced to be deployed in from the initial 5G targets
the short term is far from the initial 5G targets set by the Interna-
tional Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations agency: to set by the International
address new massive IoT and critical communication use cases for Telecommunication Union.
the industry and the services on a single infrastructure, with new
actors in the value chain and new business models.
The link with 6G? Every new mobile service generation is discussed at the ITU to establish b<>com is a partner in one Beyond 5G
a vision, and because 5G was finally introduced in two steps, we have been unable to clearly H2020 project (MONB5G, led by the Centre
explain its main benefits to citizens and consumers. By the way, let’s be clear: 5G systems best Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de
serve B2B (for the industry and the services) and not B2C (consumers). Catalunya and Eurecom), focused on the
The ITU with Network 2030 Focus Group has already identified some key targets that the distributed management of network slices
United Nations wants to address for the digital society and networks of 2030. Some use cases in Beyond 5G, and one 6G flagship project
were already partially addressed by 5G, such as tactile internet for remote operations (the (HEXA-X, led by Nokia and Ericsson), with
real-time control of remote infrastructure, applicable to Industry 4.0 as well as to telemedi- the vision to connect human, physical, and
cine) and digital twins (the real-time representation of a physical entity in the digital world; digital worlds and in which b<>com addresses
see artwin-project.eu). Other use cases are new, such as holographic-type communication for key issues related to network resilience and
3D object modeling, compression, and transport over mobile networks. The Covid-19 crisis has sustainability. In those projects, b<>com is
also demonstrated the need for safe, scalable, and reliable network infrastructure. Consequently, working on new algorithms and proofs of
Network 2030 has put an emphasis on the emergency and disaster rescue use case to cope with concept to pave the way for the future private
multiple emergency situations. network 6G solution that it will provide.
The process to specify 6G will still be long and will not take place at 3GPP before 2023. But we have to be honest about 6G: There
In the meantime, the scientific community and technology providers are exploring the technolo- is still a long way to go, and we should keep in
gies on which 6G should be built. Certainly, artificial intelligence is a key and promising technology mind the Network 2030 targets, which make it
in the field of resource allocation in the Radio Access Network, as well as attack detection and human-centric. ■
remediation. The network architecture also needs to be adapted.
For example, at the recent EuCNC and 6G Summit (www.eucnc.eu), b<>com presented the Michel Corriou is director of operations at
potential of security as a service and AI to foster distributed and autonomic management of b<>com.

IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK

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