6G Holistic System -

Expected Outcome

This project should provide a global end-to-end system framework building up on the 5G PPP results that are targeting 6G networks, provide new solutions for well selected topics and identify the place and role of each topic from the above-mentioned 4 strands. Results generated in other frameworks (e.g., national or international 6G initiatives) may also be considered as appropriate. The project should equally investigate both societal and technical aspects to cover citizen needs in 2030 and beyond.

It shall provide at least the following results:

• A complete system perspective of future 6G SNS platform, from an architectural and functional perspective and from an end-to-end, user-to-user (human and automated) perspective, integrating key results of other strands of Stream B as they become available.
• The consolidation of 6G KPI’s and KVI’s as federating SNS targets for European R&I in the field.
• The identification of key 6G use cases, their requirements, and how they can be supported by the 6G retained architecture/technologies.
• The identification of the most promising technologies, being evaluated under a complete system design approach, towards the realisation of the 6G vision.
• The translation of societal/ethical use case needs, targets and objectives into technological requirements and the identification of the technologies that can match these requirements.
• The identification of critical technologies for future standardisation work.

The project should, with equal importance and prominence, investigate societal needs, including KVIs and their related KPIs, as well as technologies in areas indicated in the above Stream B strands, that are promising to fulfil these requirements and needs. It is expected that the societal KVI outputs of the project can be used as a prominent platform to establish a dialogue with the civil society whilst the outputs on technologies and architectures support European voice in global technological fora.

Also, this project should provide well-defined means of communication with the 6G-IA[1] (i.e., 6G-IA Working Groups) for ensuring that the vision and directions of the European ICT community are appropriately captured. An advisory board of experts and representatives from key public and private stakeholders and organizations may be considered. In that context, the project should be open to incorporate, where relevant, results and approaches originating from key stakeholders beyond the project partners.

Objective

Please refer to the "Specific Challenges and Objectives" section for Stream B in the Work Programme, available under ‘Topic Conditions and Documents - Additional Documents’.

Scope

6G networks should take into consideration societal requirements as well as technological improvements. For that purpose, the project should equally address both aspects with the ambition to cover the duality of the European approach: “Sustainable 6G” and “6G for sustainability”. The overall goal is to Identify the technology needed to provide value to the society, being environmentally and economically sustainable.

The project should equally address both of the following aspects:

• The consolidation of 6G societal and technical requirements, KVI’s and KPI’s, to serve 6G use cases and the associated architectural and technological avenues to realise them. It consolidates results of other technological strands and provides comparative assessments of the various solutions, pushing the limits if technology and building a generic 6G toolbox with trade-offs across topics that will be investigated by more than one project (e.g., minimization of the energy consumption, coordination of AI/ML solutions in deployed in different network domains).
• The Societal focus and technologies to address societal goals is an important aspect. A widely validated approach should be developed to transform key SDG requirements into technological solutions and performance objectives.

The work also identifies key technologies to convey towards standardization with common approaches with users, towards the realization of a consensus framework including verticals from the onset. It is expected to be supported by the key 6G players of Europe across the value chain, including development of components and the needs of vertical industries, spanning industry to academia. This provides the view of a European technological solution for the consolidation of a 6G vision, objectives and technological developments leading to strong European position at standardization level, and paving the way towards future deployment.

The project is planned to start concurrently with other Stream B RIAs as several activities are needed before integrating the results and key findings of SNS Phase 1 Stream B projects. These activities indicatively include the definition of an appropriate set of 6G use cases, KVIs and KPIs incorporating the analysis of key findings from pre-6G technologies (5G PPP and other topic related initiatives). This should include the setup and work on key topics that the stakeholders of the project will identify as important for 6G networks and that may not even be included in other Stream B Strands, etc.

[1]Previous name of the Association: The 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA).

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