Evolution Towards IMT-2030
This Executive Forum is on the "Evolution Towards IMT-2030".
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This Executive Forum is on the "Evolution Towards IMT-2030".
INGR (International Networks Generation Roadmap) is a key component of IEEE Future Networks Initiative (futurenetworks.ieee.org). The first version of roadmap white paper was published in 2017 that led to the creation of 15 working groups. These working groups include Applications and Services, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Connecting the Unconnected, Deployment, Edge Services and Automation, Energy Efficiency, Hardware, Massive MIMO, Millimeter Wave and Signal Processing, Optics, Satellite, Standardization and Building Blocks, Systems Optimization, and Testbed. As the industry continues to advance, the evolution and deployment of network generations is influenced and impacted not only by emerging, evolving, and potential convergence of technologies, but also by local and world socio-economic and health conditions (and politics). So much can happen in a year, which is why the INGR is a living document that is updated annually. The inaugural INGR was released in 2020 and its focus was primarily on the evolution of 5G networks. The intention of the 2021 INGR Edition was to take a more end-to-end perspective that included integrating future network technologies and establish a transdisciplinary framework and a predictive model for mobile networks. 2022 and the next two years will be a time of heavy 5G deployment, transformation at the edge, and increased interworking of network technologies and systems. Hence, the 2022 Edition of the IEEE Future Networks International Network Generations Roadmap (INGR) points to trends, challenges, and solutions in the current and near-term mobile network landscape, and the future vision as being cultivated through the activities of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and the industry around the globe. This 2022 INGR Edition broadens applications of the transdisciplinary framework, progresses each technology and system challenges and opportunities especially while interworking with other areas - while noting lessons learned that can be applied to beyond 5G. As part of this panel, the working group co-chairs will share the highlights of various INGR technology working groups and how these will affect the evolution of next generation networks and deployments over varying timelines.
Random Numbers are needed to generate the essential seed for encryption in secure communication systems. If the randomness of the seed is compromised, this may eventually load to comprising the entire encryption method. The global cybercrime is expected to reach up to 10.5 Trillion USD by 2025. Furthermore, the demand for high rates of random numbers is also increasing as several billion IoT devices are getting connected to the Internet. A True Random Number Generator (TRNG) extracts entropy from physical phenomenon rather than mathematical algorithms like a PRNG, hence it is more reliable for seed generation. The state-of-the-art TRNGs are either limited in speed (up to 1.5 to 2 Gbps) or require very high power for high data rates (up to 200 mW) due to high static power consumption. However, high speed and low power are highly desirable in the next generation of 5G/6G communication systems and IoT applications.
There is a clear sense that AI can be a disruptive enabler to build a more agile and efficient future network. However, despite the constant efforts from researchers and engineers, the potential of AI is far away from being fully exploited and there's still a great gap between the current intelligence level of the network and our fancy expectations for it. Hence this panel is proposed to discuss the challenges and opportunities that we may face in "AI for 5G and beyond" exploration.
Simulation and emulation capabilities have significantly improved with the advances in compute power in the last few decades. Many applications are utilizing the power of enhanced simulation and emulation, but the wireless network quickly becomes an application that can maximize these tools due to its ever-increasing scope, scale and expanding requirements. As new network topologies are explored and the complexity of the network increases, these network tools can harness the capabilities of Digital Twins to evaluate wired and wireless network functions, design resiliency, and validate network design. This spike in complexity in network topologies is happening in tandem to the need flexible and adaptive research platforms that are capable of iterating and scaling from 5G to 6G and beyond in order to deliver novel technical results but still be useable by the larger research community. Digital twins, measurement and data fed simulations and models, offer an infrastructure to meet the rapid acceleration of design challenges that face a research ecosystem. Understanding the architectures, tools and methodologies for these model-based systems and being able to contrast them and utilize them with their physical counterparts will be integral in their use.
One of the new features of 5G currently being defined by the 3GPP standards body is NR-NTN. This feature hopes to achieve ubiquitous, or greater, coverage of 5G through space-borne or air-borne assets in areas that would not have coverage otherwise. Such a feature would be useful for ad hoc military networks on the battlefield, or for first responder applications, or for commercial and military usage across mountains, skies, or seas. As this feature is currently in the standards development phase, prototypes with commercial off-the-shelf devices are not yet available. However, with commercial off the shelf software and equipment, you can simulate NTN links in software and prototype them in hardware. A variety of NTN-based scenarios can be simulated. We will present the basis of NTN networks and how to prototype them for research and development.
MIMO technology has been a key technical component for LTE and LTE-advanced. Although a variety of MIMO modes, including open-loop MIMO, closed-loop MIMO, transmit diversity, spatial multiplexing, etc were supported by LTE, only limited number of antenna ports were assumed especially for early LTE deployment. To support C-band transceiver with more digital RF chains and millimeter wave transceiver with large number of antenna elements, massive MIMO has been considered as one of basic enabling technologies in designing NR system. Beamforming and beam management technologies, including high-precision CSI acquisition for MU-MIMO transmission, beam training and tracking, beam failure recovery have been designed and specified by NR standards. In order to meet 6G requirements new spectra such as 10~15GHz mid-band and high end mmWave & THz are being explored. On the other hand, the emergence of new materials (e.g. meta-surface material), advanced antenna array design technology, native AI learning and sensing capability provide us new enablers to achieve technology breakthrough in the research of 6G massive MIMO. It is expected that 6G ultra-Massive MIMO technologies will significantly increase system capacity for 6G network. The proposed panel will address new massive MIMO innovation opportunities and new challenges to researchers in academy and industry.
Wireless network cybersecurity has become a complex topic involving everything from physical-layer to network and application-layer techniques. Because the threat surface of 5G is larger than previous generations and because the technologies are so involved, we engineers dive into those complexities with detailed explanations and myriad acronyms (DDOS, MiTM, OpenSSL, SBA, SEAF, SEPP, SCAS, etc.). Because wireless security involves interwoven disciplines of radio, mobile networking, datacomms, and computer security principles, and even the sociological study of the anticipation of malicious behavior, experts in any one of these areas find at least one of the others difficult to grasp. Addressing security is also a mix of addressing security by specification, by design, by implementation, and by operational practice. This presentation will provide a fundamental framework for building understanding across these disciplines—especially between the wireless domain and the cybersecurity domain. From a design and measurement perspective, this talk will provide a practical foundation for both communities based on the context of two important perspectives: 1) Fundamentals for better understanding; 2) Proposals for a better approach to measure network security.
Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are complimentary to terrestrial network and expected to provide eMBB services to the areas where there are limitations. In recent years, this non-terrestrial industry has been evolving at an unprecedented speed. A couple of mega constellations have been initiated or planned in the coming years as the cost of launching rockets and rolling out satellites are hugely reduced, which make it possible to build mega (Low Earth Orbit) LEO/VLEO constellation. The emergence of low-cost mega LEO/VLEO constellations tends to be a game changer, since (i) their lower orbit altitude ensures a low latency close to that of a global cellular network and (ii) the scale of constellation provides much higher area capacity than a traditional satellite network. Both are crucial to providing eMBB services. The integration of NTN into terrestrial cellular networks is another important aspect in achieving truly global coverage, since it facilitates seamless roaming between cellular and non-terrestrial networks with a single device. The above-mentioned low latency, high capacity and seamless roaming will jointly contribute to a better user experience. However, a set of enablers are needed to realize the benefits of LEO/VLEO constellations. In this panel, we would like to invite experts from both industry and academia to shape the future of integrated mega constellation based network, deep dive the pain point of existing solutions and find out the potential research directions.
With the deployment of 5G networks and the start of standardizing 5G-Advanced, both academia and industry are exploring actively into future technologies for next generation wireless communication systems. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have been envisioned to reduce the energy consumption and improve the spectral efficiency of wireless networks by artificially re-configuring the propagation environment of electromagnetic waves. RIS-based transmission, in which the large number of small, low-cost, and passive elements on RIS only reflect the incident signal with an adjustable reflection amplitude and phase shift without requiring a dedicated energy source for radio frequency processing, decoding or encoding, is completely different from existing active relays and open up a new area of research for wireless communications. RISs are being discussed actively in regional and global standardization development organizations and are likely to become a critical component of 5G-Advanced networks.
5G rollouts have stimulated new demand that cannot be met by 5G itself. That's where 5G-Advanced comes into play, delivering enhanced capabilities. Without a doubt, 5G-Advanced will further stimulate more new demands that only 6G can address. Looking into these new demands will be crucial to defining 6G. ITU-R is leading the consortium effort to study future technology trend (FTT) and 6G vision, aiming to issue the FTT report and vision recommendation by the end of 2022 and in the middle of 2023, respectively. 6G will go far beyond communications. 6G will serve as a distributed neural network that provides communication links to fuse the physical, cyber, and biological worlds, truly ushering in an era in which everything will be sensed, connected, and intelligent. In addition to connected people and things, we predict that 6G will be the platform for connected intelligence, where the mobile network connects vast amounts of intelligent devices and connects them intelligently. This talk will first start with 5G-advanced as an introduction, then present an overall vision for 6G with drivers, use cases, KPIs, roadmap and key capabilities. Six key capabilities: (1) Extreme connectivity, (2) Native AI, (3) Networked sensing, (4) Integrated Non-terrestrial network, (5) Native trustworthiness and (6) Sustainability, will be further discussed, including potential technologies/research directions and associated challenges.
The exploitation of the large portions of available spectrum in the sub-THz band (90-300GHz) is one of the most promising directions for enhancing the capacity of current wireless access networks. However, several formidable technological, societal, and business challenges need to be addresses, in particular related to the development of economically attractive and energy efficient solutions. A part from its obvious impact in terms of costs and range of use cases, energy efficiency is a crucial parameter in the context of the ambitious climate targets imposed, for instance, by the German and Brazilian governments. Addressing these challenges requires a complete rethinking of the entire value chain of communication systems, and hence a continuous interaction between academia, industry, government, and public interest organizations. Furthermore, possible synergies with new promising paradigms such as reflective intelligent surfaces (RISs) or integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) need to be explored. Following the above spirit, this panel will bring together experts from top Brazilian institutions, and prominent partners of the German 6G Research & Innovation Cluster (6G-RIC). The 6G-RIC is a research hub designed to provide scientific and technical foundations for the next generation of mobile communications, and it is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany. It is based on the interdisciplinary and coordinated collaboration of a total of 32 research groups from 20 universities and research institutions, supported by more than 60 associated partners from science, industry, and governing bodies.
The fifth generation (5G) network, promising to provide enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), mission-critical internet of things (IoT), and massive IoT, aims to be the digital transformation enabler in all industry sectors. Moving to 2030, the physical world, digital world, and human world will be even more seamlessly connected and interacted, creating brand new experiences in work, leisure, learning, study, and social activities, accelerating the digital transformation in processes and practices in all industry sectors and public services. These will form the core driver for 6G innovation.
This lecture promotes the idea that including semantic and goal-oriented aspects in future 6G networks can produce a significant leap forward in terms of system effectiveness and sustainability. Semantic communication goes beyond the common Shannon paradigm of guaranteeing the correct reception of each single transmitted packet, irrespective of the meaning conveyed by the packet. The idea is that, whenever communication occurs to convey meaning or to accomplish a goal, what really matters is the impact that the correct reception/interpretation of a packet is going to have on the goal accomplishment. Focusing on semantic and goal-oriented aspects and possibly combining them, helps to identify the relevant information, i.e. the information strictly necessary to recover the meaning intended by the transmitter or to accomplish a goal. With this lecture we focus on the benefit of semantic compression. We present and detail a novel architecture that enables representation learning of semantic symbols for effective semantic communications. After discussing theoretical aspects and successfully design objective functions, which help learn effective semantic encoders and decoders, we present promising experimentation results for the scenario of text transmission when the sender and receiver speak different languages.