European Vision for the 6G Network Ecosystem

June 2021:

The 5G IA “Vision and Societal Challenges Work Group” have published a new White Paper describing a
‘European Vision for the 6G Network Ecosystem’.

This White Paper covers key areas related to 6G research from a technical, societal, policy and business perspective providing a vision for the future mobile networks.

In the coming decade, 6G will bring a new era in which billions of things, humans, and connected vehicles, robots and drones will generate zettabytes of digital information.

The White Paper explains how 6G is expected to play a key role in the evolution of the society towards the 2030’s, as the convergence between the digital, physical and personal worlds will increasingly become a reality. Furthermore, 6G will support the European Green Deal’s objective of reaching climate neutrality for Europe by 2050. This and other objectives of 6G will also greatly contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Key features of 6G will include intelligent connected management and control functions, programmability, integrated sensing and communication, reduction of energy footprint, trustworthy infrastructure, scalability and affordability. The development of Europe-based 6G infrastructures and solutions will be of key importance to secure European strategic autonomy in critical technologies and systems.

In the final part, the White Paper presents possible opportunities and obstacles related to 6G as well as a series of recommendations for both policy makers and businesses.

You may download the White Paper here: 5G IA White Paper – European Vision for the 6G Network Ecosystem or, if you prefer, you can download the Executive Summary.

This White Paper is a major milestone at a time when the 5G IA is preparing for the next chapter in the mobile communications story with the new ‘Smart Networks and Services’ (SNS) European Partnership in the framework of the Horizon Europe programme.

Within the SNS, the 5G IA will be the private side representative, jointly managing the Partnership with the EU. It will contribute to enable the digital and green transitions and will allow European players to develop the technology capacities for 6G systems as the basis for future digital services. Additional information is available at https://5g-ia.eu/sns-horizon-europe/.