6G: The network as a digital 6th sense

Nokia Bell Labs: research and consulting

Nokia Bell Labs, formerly known as Bell Telephone Laboratories and later Bell Labs, is a renowned industrial research and scientific development company that has now been in existence for almost 100 years. Various activities and research projects aimed at developing breakthrough technologies and solutions within information and communication technology are carried out at Nokia Bell Labs.

Nokia Bell Labs Consulting is a division within Nokia Bell Labs that focuses on providing strategic advice and expertise to businesses and government agencies. Their services are designed to help organisations navigate complex technology challenges and exploit new opportunities.

Jochum talks more about Nokia's vision for the 6G era: "6G will merge the human, physical and digital worlds. This will create a network that takes us from connectivity to belonging, from information to knowledge and from effectiveness to purpose. 6G will help us redefine the way we live, work and care for our planet."

5G as a stepping stone to 6G

Nokia designs, delivers and maintains 5G networks for service providers, enterprises and governments. The evolution of this 3GPP standard is 5G-Advanced and Nokia is developing and implementing it. Nokia Bell Labs expects 6G to be launched commercially by 2030.

With 6G, Nokia sees three challenges driving the development and adoption of this new technology. The first challenge is 'green by design' (targets for reduced energy consumption while increasing capacity). The second challenge is 'security and privacy' and the third challenge is digital inclusion (accessible, affordable and ensuring the technology can be understood, adopted and used by users). "For us, these are the basic requirements for 6G, something that we need to start solving and therefore include in the development of 6G. The springboard for 6G will be 5G; 5G and 6G run through our entire portfolio and are a guide for all our 92,000 colleagues," Robert adds.

Partnerships and collaborations

"Collaboration is in the DNA at Nokia," Robert explains. "Defining a new generation of wireless connectivity is not a task that a single company - or even a handful of companies - can do alone. We need a community of network vendors and service providers, device manufacturers and application developers, vertical industries and even governments. Everyone with a stake in the future of technology needs to have a say and be involved in the development of 6G."

Jochum adds: "We have global partnerships; working together is our top priority to make 6G successful."

To make 6G a reality in the industry before 2030, Nokia is leading Hexa-X, the European Commission's 6G flagship initiative for research into next-generation wireless networks. Nokia is also a founding member of the Next G Alliance, an initiative to promote North American leadership in mobile technology, and of RINGS, an NSF-led initiative in the US that will accelerate academic research together with industry in areas with a potentially significant impact on next-generation networking and computing systems (NextG).

6G trends

6G will not just build on existing technologies; it will radically transform what a network can do, according to Nokia. Jochum explains the key trends shaping the technology ecosystem and having a profound impact on businesses, governments and consumers:

1. As 5G adoption continues to grow, the need for monetary value creation will increase.
2. The ecosystem of devices is expanding. This trend refers to the growing diversity and quantity of connected devices communicating with each other and with networks, such as drones, sensors, XR, etc.
3. The adoption of new and emerging technologies (such as AI) is increasing rapidly. This has profound implications for various industries, markets and everyday life.

Nokia and FNS

Robert and Jochum conclude, "At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world work together. We are a technology innovation leader in networking, bringing together people, machines and devices around the world to realise the potential of digitisation in every industry. FNS is another great example of the innovation driving future network deployment. This is a Dutch initiative and encourages cooperation between key players in the high-tech industry in the Netherlands. Nokia encourages the FNS team to continue their great efforts to align and share with other European initiatives such as the European SNS and other local initiatives."

Additional resources:

• Nokia: If we want 6G to really matter, we must make collaboration the biggest priority
• Nokia's vision for the 6G era