We’re coming up on a generational crossroads in networking. While commercially, we are still firmly in the 5G era of wireless communications, our research focus has now shifted to the 6G era. As you have probably noticed, Nokia is talking a lot more about the next generation of wireless. 

But you will also notice, when we talk about 6G, we’re not speaking alone. 

Nokia and its research arm Bell Labs have been collaborating with every manner of company and institution to investigate 6G’s potential.

As service providers will be the first to deploy 6G networks, Nokia has begun working closely with our forward-looking mobile customers to test 6G technologies. For instance, with NTT, Docomo and SKT, we are exploring how AI will unlock new capabilities and enhance performance in 6G networks. 

We are partnering with industry powerhouses and enterprise-solutions makers to examine how new wireless technologies will redefine the workplace. With Bosch, Nokia Bell Labs is evaluating industrial use cases for 6G joint communication and sensing. And with Hololight, we are investigating how new wireless technologies will allow networks to support multiple simultaneous XR sessions without sacrificing quality of experience.

Nokia aims to create a broad 6G ecosystem. To that end, we are working closely with Qualcomm to explore the potential interoperability challenges between 6G networks and devices – then innovating ways to overcome those challenges. And just last week, Nokia and Nvidia announced we are investigating how the power of a digital twin could be used to simulate the entirety of a 6G network without ever venturing outside of a lab. 

Our collaboration efforts also extend far beyond the private sector. Nokia has worked extensively with the global membership of the ITU to ensure the World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 identified the most appropriate spectrum for 6G. We partner closely with universities and research institutions from India to the U.S.  For instance, every year, Nokia and NYU Wireless co-host the landmark Brooklyn 6G Summit, which brings together the brightest minds in academia, business and communications to scrutinize the most cutting-edge trends in network research.

Defining a new generation of wireless connectivity is not a job that a single company – or even a handful of companies – can tackle alone. We need a community of network vendors and service providers, device makers and application developers, vertical industries and even governments. Anyone who has a stake in the future of technology should have a say in 6G. We’re not building 6G for its own sake. Rather future applications, services and devices are placing ever-increasing demands on our network infrastructure. We’re creating 6G for the sole reason of meeting those relentless demands. 

The industrial metaverse, spatial computing, AI-generated content and ubiquitous XR are hungry for capacity, require unbending reliability and brook no compromises in latency. The most cutting-edge future applications – whether they be self-driving vehicles, fleets of drones and large-scale factory automation – will only work in a world that has been virtually mapped with digital twins. And every new technology has an obligation to the planet to minimize its greenhouse emissions footprint. 

These are the requirements our customers and research collaborators are demanding. Consequently, Nokia is working with these same partners to craft a next-generation system that specifically addresses those needs. 

Our joint 6G research is focused, in part, on producing a network and device ecosystem that will support the most demanding application’s requirements for throughput, reliability and latency. But 6G can’t merely be about performance. To meet the demand for massive-scale digital twinning, Nokia Bell Labs is exploring ways to transform the network into a ubiquitous sensor that can virtually map any environment it touches. We’re pushing for native API support in 6G to make it far easier for application developers to tap the power and capabilities of the network. And to tackle the issue of sustainability, 6G research starts square one at energy efficiency.