CV_Winter_21

MOBILE & WIRELESS placed on technology commercializa- tion. The work includes research and development, manufacturing, standard- ization and market readiness. The Founding Members of the Next G Alliance met last November, and a steering group as well as a working group will be created this year. The groups will address a roadmap of the changing competitive landscape, while positioning North America as the global leader in next G technologies; a means for aligning the industry on a core set of technologies, research priorities and recommended government actions; and the identification and definition of the early steps and strategies that will help lead to rapid commercialization of next G technologies. The alliance laid out nine use case scenarios that 5G promises, but has yet to deliver, as well as more advanced situations that are emerg- ing as next G possibilities. These use cases offer some interesting and excit- ing sales opportunities for the channel (see table above). Need for Speed Next-generation systems will require enormous increases in bandwidth. The IMT-2020 requirements for 5G are 20Gbps for aggregate peak downlink (DL) and 10Gbps for aggre- gate peak uplink (UL), while minimum end-user speeds are 100Mbps/50Mbps (DL/UL). While 5G users can expect speeds in the hundreds of Mbps, it is insufficient for some next G use cases such as holographic communications and cyber-physical systems. Wide area coverage is a strength of cellular networks, and users have come to expect it. Unfortunately, we’re also used to pockets of weak coverage in some areas. The next G use cases 5G Americas’ report describes rely on uniform cover- age over large geographic areas. In addition to this uniform coverage over large areas, ubiquitous services must be provided in remote areas not served previously. This will create a seamless integrated connectivity framework that includes land-based, marine, pseudo-satellites, aircraft, balloons, drones, and space-based infrastructures. 5G Americas argues that design options of the next G offer the opportunity to make the network simpler and more flexible. Latency, security, resilience, and energy efficiency can be used to enhance functional placement. Separation of user plane and control plane, virtual- ization, and cloud native implemen- tation of the core have facilitated the increased level of flexibility. Because of increasing traffic volume and lower latency require- ments, the core user plane functions will move closer to the edge. Additional opportunities exist to harmonize the radio access network and core functions to create a simpler network. According to 5G Americas, the capabilities of this extended spectrum go beyond today’s 5G capabilities and enables new next G use cases. The immense bandwidth available in the mmWave and THz regions add orders of magnitude higher data rates for terabit/sec mobile communications and backhaul systems. The potential for massive spatial multiplexing also expands the volume data rate (bits/ sec/m3) for 3D multi-link. Working with common goals to find solutions for the use case scenarios listed will help to ensure the viability of a next-generation wireless networking, post 5G – whenever that may be. o 6G Technology Journeys Source: Ericsson Expectation for Performance in 2021 vs. 2020 Today Expect to grow revenue in 2021 over 2020/2019 Expect to remain stable with 2020 Technology focus Use case focus Enablers for XR Holographic communication Network/machine interaction Digital twins everywhere ICT for climate and dematerialization Embedded devices everywhere Confidential computing Distributed AI Network-assistted cloud Brain-computer interfaces The Internet of Senses Connected intelligent machines Digitalized & programmable physical world Sustainable world Limitless connectivity Trustworthy systems Cognitive network Network compute fabric System of systems Joint communication & sensing ICT for sustainable, resilient societies Extreme performance Extreme resilience Trustworthy AI Network-embedded cloud Novel data formats Positioning & sensor fusion Resource-efficient networks Flexible topologies & deployments Secure IDs Closed-loop automation Cloud-native network 37% 25% 18 CHANNEL V ISION | January - February, 2021