Toward a Future-Proof Global 6G: Business, Regulation, and Technology Perspectives

Abstract

Sixth generation (6G) mobile communications are envisioned to be a comprehensive connectivity platform for unification between the human, digital, and physical worlds through the convergence of diverse enabling technologies across many disciplines. A plethora of competing 6G vision documents have been distributed with the intention of shaping the world's IMT strategy for 2030 or later in ITU-R and have largely continued the technology-centric paradigm that characterized previous mobile generations in the sense of foregrounding enabling technologies, use scenarios and performance metrics. Consequently, current ideologies have all led to a complex and partially overlapping landscape, lacking a coherent and holistic view and a common terminology required to harmonize a truly global 6G vision and thus hindering successful development and commercialization. While recognition of sustainability and human centric-ness is increasingly recognized as a major driving force, current visions often do not incorporate these dimensions through a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach. To fill this gap, a human-centric and sustainability-focused framework for the definition and development of 6G is proposed in the present paper in the form of a series of connected questions about the purpose of 6G; its intended beneficiaries, the stakeholders involved, envisaged use cases and modes of utilization, implementation mechanisms and metrics for success. The applicability of the framework is illustrated by the selected prospective 6G use scenarios and thus contributes to the establishment of a base for collaborative, future-proof, global 6G visioning.