Tag: NGMN

NGMN guides the industry with 6G Requirements and Design Considerations

In its latest 6G publication, “6G Requirements and Design Considerations”, the NGMN Alliance (NGMN) has defined several important requirements for 6G. By providing this guidance to the industry, NGMN takes on a leading role in avoiding fragmentation of future 6G standards and achieving affordable deployments and services valued by end users.

The publication offers guidance and input to Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) working towards realisation of the vision of communication systems for 2030 and beyond, currently being developed by ITU-R. It has been developed on the understanding that there will be an evolution towards 6G without distinction between any new 6G technology, an evolution of 5G or a combination of both.

New approaches have been identified within this publication covering digital inclusion, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and flexible deployment. Potential new capabilities related to prospective use cases are discussed qualitatively as well as new paradigms to address traffic growth, capacity needs, minimise complexity and provide alternatives to densification.

Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D, Vodafone and NGMN Board Member, says: “This important contribution reflects how evolution towards 6G needs to deliver customer led outcomes whilst maximising efficient use of resources and ensuring the practical deployment of software-driven networks.”

Anita Döhler, NGMN CEO, states: “As a global mobile operator driven organisation, reflecting the entire ecosystem in its membership, we are well positioned in submitting 6G Requirements and Design Considerations to SDOs and the industry. Our objective is to guide and support the mobile industry in achieving a global 6G standard and with already over 50 companies participating in this specific project today, we look forward to driving industry alignment around 6G architecture in the future.”

Following NGMN’s publications “6G Drivers and Vision” in 2021, “6G Use Cases and Analysis” in 2022, the latest publication “6G Requirements and Design Considerations” marks the next step towards a deeper understanding of 6G architecture.

The publication can be downloaded from here: www.ngmn.org/publications/6g-requirements-and-design-considerations.html

Collaboration is key to driving the industry’s most important topics such as NGMN’s strategic pillars: Green Future Networks, Operating Disaggregated Networks, and 6G. NGMN therefore invites all parties across the entire value chain to join the Alliance in this important endeavour.

Further information and all publications of the NGMN Alliance can be found on their website at www.ngmn.org.

NGMN Paves the Way for Disaggregated Networks’ Operating Models

The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance has launched its second publication on “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v2.0”, which provides a detailed breakdown on how disaggregation impacts an operator’s organisation and processes. The publication covers RAN, core and transport disaggregation and outlines how planning, deployment, service provision, optimisation and maintenance processes will be impacted. In addition, the publication highlights the impact on processes of cloudification and the need to move towards the use of greater network automation whilst embracing DevSecOps. The opportunities, challenges, and the impact on network testing are also explained. Developed by the NGMN Alliance’s Partners – operators, vendors, system integrators, and research institutes – the new publication builds on “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v1.0” from October 2021, which outlined the opportunities and challenges of network disaggregation.

Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board, states: “The successful and cost-effective adoption of disaggregated network technologies, enabling an agile implementation of innovative technologies with improved capabilities to react fast on customer demand, requires new modi operandi. In NGMN, we specifically focus on the operating model of disaggregated networks. We at Deutsche Telekom are glad to lead this initiative, working with our co-leads, who represent other geo-locations, and with the entire value chain in NGMN. “

Arvin L. Siena, Vice President & Head – Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, PLDT & Smart Communications and NGMN Alliance Board Director, adds: “The telecommunications industry has embarked on an exciting journey. One that has started to disrupt the foundations of how networks are planned, designed, built, and operated, through their adoption of network disaggregation leading towards cloud-native strategies. As Co-Lead of the ODiN Project, we are excited to push this forward together with our NGMN Partners.”

Javan Erfanian, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Bell Canada and NGMN Alliance ODiN Project Co-Lead and Board Member, further explains: “Network disaggregation sets out the foundations for an agile and flexible future, setting the scene for operators to meet the needs of increasingly diverse use cases – across a wide range of industry sectors and with a wide range of requirements. We are very excited to work together with the operators and the entire value chain on industry solutions, enabling the industry to successfully embrace and bring to fruition network disaggregation and cloudification.”

Phase two of the NGMN Alliance ODiN Project demonstrates that, while the depth and extent of changes are indeed huge, there are broad concepts, initiatives and activities that aim to support and even accelerate the transition. From standardisation to alliances, from open proof-of-concept and integration labs to knowledge sharing and transfer, activities were collectively identified to support operators and the whole value chain in making disaggregation a success.

In the next step, the NGMN Alliance will work on more detailed guidance by outlining network disaggregation architectural options and related operating model blueprints, matched to specific deployment scenarios and operator needs. It is anticipated that “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v3.0” will be released in 2023.

Download the ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v2.0 publication here.
All publications of the NGMN Alliance can be found on their website at www.ngmn.org.

NGMN Calls for the Industry to Support Uplink Performance

Verticals’ use cases need sufficient uplink throughput or cell capacity and low enough latency, when 5G Time-Division Duplex (TDD) bands are used to successfully realize their industrial use cases. The uplink performance is key to fully unlock the value of 5G. Therefore, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance calls to increase efforts to enhance the uplink performance in its new White Paper “5G TDD UPLINK”. The Alliance formulates specific recommendations to regulators and other mobile industry stakeholders to support the ecosystem with adequate solutions. Also, various technical possibilities are presented – some of them are related to the management of interference, when differing frame structures are used to support the industries’ requirements.

Wolfgang Fleischer, Head of Network Innovation Technology & Business Evolution, A1 Group, NGMN Board Member and Project Lead, says: “Some of the applications for 5G technology, particularly in industrial settings, have greater requirements on the uplink – both in terms of capacity and shorter latency. This NGMN Initiative puts these into the spotlight and presents features to enable the networks to accommodate the requirements for such uplink dependent use cases.”

NGMN’s recommendations to better support the uplink throughput and latency requirements of Verticals include:

  • To use different TDD configurations
  • To select frame structure to vary uplink/downlink throughput
  • To carefully select more balanced or uplink oriented TDD frame structures in a local network
  • To consider the adoption of other uplink enhancing features such as SU-MIMO
  • To enhance 3GPP specification to fulfil requirements with respect to UL throughput, latency, and support for the co-existence of different frame structures by enhancements
  • To reserve spectrum for certain specific usages

The NGMN project will also reach out to chipset makers, regulators, Standard Developing Organisations and other involved parties to ensure that these NGMN recommendations are considered.