NGA and International 6G Activities

Iain SharpPrincipal Technologist, ATISAugust 23, 2021

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Introduction• The Next G Alliance was formed with a mission to work holistically on North American leadership

in next generation wireless technology

• Now that the NGA has started to formulate a National Roadmap and develop strategies in the working groups, it is time to consider how the Next G Alliance will engage and exchange information with appropriate international organizations

• There are private, public and public/private partnership (PPP) 6G groups in all 3GPP partner regions and beyond

• These groups vary in their scope and funding models

• ATIS has been approached by several groups for possible discussions and workshops

• To guide engagement from the NGA side, this presentation provides an overview of the primary international groups

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Europe

• 6G vision and pre-standards technology research

• Industry lead with university participation• ~$13M of EU “Horizon 2020” funding

over 3 years, plus contributed effort from participants

• About 17 other Horizon 2020 programs also intersect with 6G

• 6G ecosystem and fundamental technology research

• University lead with industry participation

• ~$290M of Academy of Finland funding over 8 years, plus other contributions

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Hexa-X Deliverable Roadmap (Overview)2021:

• 6G Vision, Use Cases, and Societal Values (March)• Technology gap analysis documents (June/ongoing)

2022:• Initial architecture (April)• Radio models and enabling techniques (January-April)• Final architecture and network solutions (July)• Initial models and measurements for localization and sensing (July)

• 2023:• Finalize technical solutions for radio and network (July)• Final report (July)

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Map of Horizon 2020 6G Research Projects

Source: https://www.6gworld.com/exclusives/the-ultimate-6g-research-network-graph/

Bring Reinforcement-learning Into Radio Light Network for Massive Connections

Network intelligence for aDAptive and sElf-Learning MObileNetworks

A secure and reusable Artificial Intelligence platform for Edge computing in beyond 5G Networks

Dynamic coverage Extension and Distributed Intelligence for human centric applications with assured security, privacy and trust: from 5G to 6G

Enabling Practical Wireless Tb/s Communications with Next Generation Channel Coding

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6G Flagship

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Korea• “6G R&D Implementation Plan” announced in June 2021 by the Ministry of Science and ICT

(“MSIT”)

• Goals for the plan:• Secure next-generation key original technologies, • Gain dominance in international standards and patents, and • Lay the foundation for 6G research and industry

• About $8M of government funding over 4 years, plus industry contribution

• Includes MoU between Korean Institute for Information & Communication Technology Promotion (IITP) and US National Science Foundation (NSF)

• The Korean 3GPP partner (“TTA”) has invited ATIS to hold a joint workshop on 6G. Currently this is scheduled for early 2022

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Korea 6G-Related Organizations and International Standards leadership• The Korean “5G Forum” promotes collaboration of government, ICT,

and vertical industries, institutes, and academia

• Participation includes leading Korean and international organizations

• 5G Forum activities are now extending in to 6G

• Hyoungjin Choi, Principal Engineer at Samsung Electronics chairs the 6G Vision Group of ITU-R WP5D (Working Party 5D).

• The Korean 3GPP partner (“TTA”) has a technical committee (TC11) started in 2020 on 6G standardization.

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Japan• The “Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium” has been established as a hub for 6G activities

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Japan Government Funding

• Funding for Beyond 5G research has been announced under various government initiatives

• Funding covers specific projects (~$300M), and building of facilities/test beds (~$200M)

• The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) seems to be the leading government department

Financial year 2020 budget announcement

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China• Government activity is lead by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and Ministry of

Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)

• Government and industry coordination occurs through “IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group” (see next slide)

• Reportedly there are 15 research projects launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in Dec. 2020 under the framework of “National Key R&D Project”.

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China 6G Promotion Group

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OthersIndia

• The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) held a webinar on 6G in February 2021.

• India and Finland have agreed to cooperative research in topics including 6G

• The Indian 3GPP partner (TSDSI) has contributed to the ITU-R vision work

Brazil

• National 6G Research Project started under the leadership from Inatel

• Support from Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI)

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International Groups Compared to NGAU.S. Government and Funding

Agencies ATIS Next G Alliance

$$Research Funding

Tax credits and grants

6G Research Initiative

Development and Manufacturing

“Next G” Readiness

Standards Leadership

Realization and Commercialization

Europe

Korea

Japan

ChinaIMT-2030 Promotion Group

= Strong Coverage

= Some Coverage

Vertical application integration

Testing facilities

KEY

New Business Strategy

Ecosystem Strategy

Next G Alliance Work Areas

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Analysis• There is a diverse set of international activities in 6G in progress

• Broadly, these international groups expose a global 6G solution as their ultimate goal, though they are aimed at developing leadership in their host regions

• While the Next G Alliance looks holistically across the entire 6G lifecycle (research to realization), the scope of the international activities are generally more targeted

• The unique breadth of the NGA scope can enable North American leadership throughout the 6G era

• Openness to dialog and influence by international groups will vary. ATIS has already been approached by Japan and Korea to set up workshops.

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Next Steps• As NGA work efforts progress, develop materials and talking points that can be used to engage

with international groups

• Communicate the specific needs and technical features that North America requires in the next generation

• Apply a balanced approach to progressing the important work of the NGA for the whole 6G lifecycle while creating strategic engagements at an international level

• Define and promote the NGA vision for North America as part of global 6G convergence initiatives

Building the foundation for North American leadership in 6G and beyond