Finnish 6G Flagship has published 11 new 6G White papers.
-The power of collaboration is astonishing seeing what more than 250 experts from more than 100 organisations and 30 countries have managed to put together. The whole process from the kickoff to final publishing was completed in six months, despite the COVID-19 lockdown, says Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor Marja Matinmikko-Blue who coordinated the writing process in the role of 6G Flagship´s research coordinator at the University of Oulu.
After publishing world’s first 6G White Paper in September 2019 as an outcome of the first 6G Wireless Summit, the visionaries in 6G Flagship wanted to reach much higher in the second round. A full dozen topics were filtered for a profound analysis.
-This time we wanted to dive much deeper by selecting 12 particular areas of interest needing more detailed envisioning and target setting. We wanted to add more openness and engage a larger number of leading experts in making this joint effort to pave the way towards 6G, says professor Matti Latva-aho, Director of 6G Flagship.
Eleven papers are now online, and the twelfth paper will be published later. The path towards 6G is becoming clearer as the open innovation progresses. A multi-disciplinary approach on solving future challenges of the highly digitized society is clearly visible in several White Papers.
-After all, there is a global consensus that 6G research should be aligned with the UN SDGs as a fundamental driver as both the technology leap and the develop goals target the year 2030. Business aspects are not forgotten either, as one White Paper develops scenarios for the business of 6G considering key trends and depicting novel 6G digital service providers stemming from redefined sustainable economics, Matinmikko-Blue highlights.
The work of the White Paper expert groups shows that 6G research is still a collection of ideas, some of which are very promising while others are still hampered by 5G thinking.
-There are several novel wireless technologies requiring more detailed studies, but not a single breakthrough foreseen yet. Higher frequencies above 100GHz are of great interest but otherwise 5G evolutionary ideas are still dominant. Machine learning (ML) is probably one of the major game changers in the future. However, those techniques would require new computing paradigms to handle real-time requirements with huge amounts of data. And of course, network security, which can never be underestimated, Latva-aho concludes.
Hot off the press 6G White Papers can be downloaded from below. In September (9th), we will start a weekly series of 12 webinars open to all, where all White Papers will be presented one at a time. Stay tuned!
