By Dr. Tong Wen, CTO, Huawei Wireless
At the IEEE PIMRC conference held on September 4, 2024, Dr. Tong Wen, Huawei Wireless CTO, presented his views on the development direction of the 6G industry. In his speech titled, “The Architectural Framework for A-RAN and A-Core,” Dr. Tong Wen pointed out, “6G will not be a simple upgrade of 5G; it should integrate the AI revolution from the past 20 months to reshape the wireless industry and take it to the next height.”
5G is a success and 6G is on track. Dr. Tong Wen shard the timeline of the 6G standard to illustrate. The first 6G standard discussion will address 3GPP in 2025 and the first version of the 6G standard will be frozen in 2030. In a nutshell, after six years, there will be a global 6G standard and the mobile industry ecosystem will rally to go to market.
However, 6G is a long-term game plan, its technology and standard should support the innovations during the future decade from 2030 to 2040. From an investment point of view, 6G technology should also have a long shelf-life. This is not a replication of 5G technology, but an incremental generation of wireless.
At the conference, Dr Tong Wen elaborated on 6G standardization, direction and the innovations driving 6G standardization.
First, 6G is a True Generational Technology Disruption
Currently, the AI revolution is profoundly changing every aspect of our work and life. 6G should consider the emerging AI revolution happening now and in the future. Therefore, we need to re-examine the new possibilities and potential for the mobile industry through 2030 and beyond. Therefore, the 6G standard, key technologies, and network architecture should be re-defined based on application scenarios and requirements from 2030 to 2040.
The 6G standard needs to adopt the disruptive technologies to enable a true generational capability improvement. Specifically, in terms of core network, RAN, and terminals, the day-one 3GPP 6G standard must have the original technologies and major air interface features to drastically improve network performance and energy saving and deliver 10 to 30 times better user experience and 3 times more intrinsic spectral efficiency and energy efficiency.
In summary, 6G is not the continuation or upgrade of 5G technologies; it is also not another way to implement 5G. Instead, 6G is a new generation of capabilities; it should generate new values for the consumers.
Second, 6G Should Embrace the AI Revolution with an OOM Quantum Leap
Twenty years ago, the internet was an enabler of the latest technology. The wireless industry embraced the internet and achieved great business success. Today, AI is becoming an enabler of the latest technologies. There is no doubt that 6G will embrace AI. Thus, the 3GPP 6G standardization process needs to fully digest the disruptive changes of the AI technologies.
- On the Core Network Side: Using Agentic AI-based technology to re-architect 6G-Core to achieve full automation for the 6G-Core, including generation, operation, and maintenance. 6G-Core is a new technology that goes beyond 5G SBA to support the primitive capabilities of 6G AI, sensing and NTN.
- On the RAN Side: AGI and embodiment AI (EAI) will be the mainstream AI applications in 2030-2040. The industry needs to further study AGI and embodiment AI, not just the current generative AI (GenAI). Therefore, it is too early to draw conclusions on the 6G air interface design about how to support 6G AI.
- On the UE Side: 6G UEs must support the “Full AI” function. The 6G transformation from 5G technologies will be difficult if 6G UEs cannot adapt to the rapid development of AI and sensing capabilities from 2030 to 2040.
Third, 6G Architecture Should be a Continuous Innovation to Create a Bigger Market
5G has proved its market success in the past years, and 5G technology is evolving into 5G-Advanced. In the next 5 years or more, 5G and 5G-Advanced can meet the customer requirements and will continue to deliver the value to the operators and protect their 5G investment.
Therefore, 6G technologies should not overlap and duplicate 5G, or compete with the 5G market space and waste operators’ investment. Instead, 6G technologies should create innovative industry values and expand the market space for the mobile industry.
Simply reusing 5G network architecture without generational and fundamental innovation will limit the mobile industry’s aspiration and imagination to dive into innovation in the 6G era. In particular, reusing the 5G core network will hinder innovation in AI.
Fourth, 6G User Devices Call for a Breakthrough
The breakthrough of terminal technologies is the key (if not the only) factor for mobile device evolution. In 2007, iPhones enabled mobile broadband industry development with a phenomenal market success. It is hard to imagine that smartphones will continue to drive the mobile industry beyond 2030.
Therefore, new breakthroughs must be made in terminal technologies in the 6G, and the 6G system must be prepared for terminals in the 6G era.
In conclusion, Dr. Tong Wen further clarified the relationship between 5G and 6G: “6G must be an innovative generational technology instead of a simple extension of 5G technology. Now, 5G deployment is rolling out globally, and the current market demand and requirement can be met by 5G-Advanced. This will protect the investment of operators and continue to expand the market space. To duplicate 5G technologies for 6G is essentially a pseudo-6G technology, which is not the best use of investment for operators. We should not underestimate the capabilities of 5G-Advanced for the current market, and we should not underestimate the potential of 6G.”
