6G just got 250M€

Roberto Saracco June 24, 2018 Blog 1,680 Views

A seamless connectivity from our body to the internet. May 6G make this a reality? Image credit: University of Oulu

In April 2018 I posted a blog on Vision 2030 created by the University of Oulu, Finland that was starting to look beyond 5G (even before 5G goes to market!). On that blog I attached a clip that was describing their vision, I am attaching it here again for your viewing pleasure.

Now the news that Oulu University has won a funding of 250 million € over the next 8 years to set the bases for the next wireless generation.

The funding was won through a bid for flagship initiatives in Finland and their bid ranked first in terms of technical soundness and third in terms of impact.
The bases for their bid is the consideration that by 2030 the world scenario will be quite different with such a density of empowered entities, most of them able to communicate and create a communication space around them. They will create a communication fabric, a quilt, where communications will be created bottom up. Of course the faster, lower latency mantra is there but it is not the leading aspect.

As application areas they mention “automation of manufacturing technologies, sustainable energy, e-health, and autonomous transportation”. Not surprisingly they overlap with the application areas of 5G. Personally, I feel that by the time 6G will become a market reality the world will be facing challenges that we are not aware today and 6G will fit nicely (not perfectly of course ’cause that will be the goal of 7G).

I guess that the first steps will also include the definition of the “beyond 5G” characteristics that 6G will need to satisfy. Again, I feel that the “faster/lower latency” should not be high on the list of requirements. If I may offer some thoughts I would ask for:

self allocation of spectrum every few seconds (this is opening up the requirement to 7G to sustain under second reallocation);
semantic management of protocols to allow new advances in communications to fit in under the 6G umbrella;
characterisation of connected points (devices, sensors, network equipment, …) as storage, processing, hubs, relay … losing the concept of a hierarchical architecture.