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CLOUD NATIVE MANIFESTO

NGMN publishes Cloud Native Manifesto

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Setting industry’s call to action to drive cloud native adoption


Frankfurt, Germany, 13 September 2023. Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) published the “Cloud Native Manifesto: An Operator View”. This important publication provides key principles and requirements for Cloud Native Telecom from an operator’s point of view, and a clear view on the focus required by the industry in order to accelerate the adoption of cloud native solutions in mobile networks. “Cloud Native” refers to a way of designing and operating applications, network functions and services in an open and flexible environment with the intention to enable greater efficiency in operations and faster time to market for new services, thereby enabling operators to meet their customers’ needs. 

“Given the strategic impact of the move towards cloud native, the already experienced and foreseen implications in its adoption for operators, and the multiple options and paths provided by industry players, it is the belief of the NGMN Board that a clear position on cloud native is required,” said Arash Ashouriha, Chairman of the NGMN Board and SVP Group Technology at Deutsche Telekom. “With this publication – written by the NGMN Board and invited operator experts – we provide that steering to the industry by outlining a clear set of prioritised calls to action, which, once addressed, will drive the migration at scale towards cloud native network workloads, for the benefit of the ecosystem and end-users”, he added. 

“Whilst the industry is embracing cloud native as a paradigm to boost efficiency and enhance flexibility for current and future networks, it is clear that several issues remain, which will hamper the objective to achieve scale deployment – unless these are urgently, consistently and cohesively addressed through an industry wide effort” said Mauro Costa, NGMN Board Member and Director of Network Cloud and Continuous Delivery at Telia Company. “In particular, together with the entire industry, we need to ensure that solutions can be truly cloud native and multi-vendor and that we have the tools and processes in place to enable these” he added. 

On the journey to highly flexible, sustainable, and resilient networks for the future, the NGMN Board believes in applying the following cloud native principles to all layers of network infrastructure, applications and services*: 

  1. Decoupled infrastructure and application lifecycles over vertical monoliths  
  2. ‘API first’ over manual provisioning of network resources  
  3. Declarative and intent-based automation over imperative workflows  
  4. GitOps** principles over traditional network operations practices 
  5. Unified Kubernetes (or the like) resource consumption patterns over domain-specific resource controllers 
  6. Unified Kubernetes (or the like) closed-loop reconciliation patterns over vendor-specific element management practices  
  7. Interoperability by well-defined certification processes over vendor-specific optimisation. 

Through its Operating Disaggregated Networks (ODiN) project, NGMN continues to shape and develop processes to enable the industry – operators and vendors – to efficiently manage the full lifecycle of disaggregated networks. The Cloud Native Manifesto will play an important role in advancing this work of NGMN to deliver a set of operating model blueprints for disaggregated networks. The ODiN project, led by Deutsche Telekom and co-led by Bell Canada and Smart/PLDT, working with the entire value chain at NGMN, will publish its next recommendations at MWC2024.   

“As an industry alliance, we focus on collaboration, to unlock the smartest opportunities and to solve the biggest challenges the industry faces”, said Anita Doehler, CEO NGMN Alliance. “With this manifesto, coupled with the work of our ODiN project, we are providing a solid foundation for the industry to move forward at pace with adopting this key technology”, she added. 

Special acknowledgements go to the following Operator Members, who made significant contributions to the development of this publication: Bell Canada, BT, Chunghwa Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Smart/PLDT, Telia, TELUS, Turkcell, Vodafone. 

The full Cloud Native Manifesto can be downloaded here

 

* Does not imply order of priority
 ** Everything as code, single point of truth, immutable source of trust

 

About the NGMN Alliance

The NGMN Alliance (NGMN) is a forum founded by world-leading Mobile Network Operators and open to all Partners in the mobile industry. Its goal is to ensure that next generation network infrastructure, service platforms and devices will meet the requirements of operators and ultimately will satisfy end user demand and expectations. The vision of NGMN is to provide impactful industry guidance to achieve innovative, sustainable and affordable mobile telecommunication services for the end user with a particular focus on Mastering the Route to Disaggregation / Operating Disaggregated Networks, Green Future Networks and 6G, whilst continuing to support 5G’s full implementation.

NGMN seeks to incorporate the views of all interested stakeholders in the telecommunications industry and is open to three categories of participants/NGMN Partners: Mobile Network Operators (Members), vendors, software companies and other industry players (Contributors), as well as research institutes (Advisors). NGMN invites all parties across the entire value chain to join the Alliance in these important endeavours.

 

Cover Image Press and Industry Briefing on 28th February 2023

NGMN Press And Industry Briefing @MWC 2023

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Thank you for joining our annual NGMN Press & Industry Briefing at Mobile World Congress on February 28th from 1:00 – 2:00 pm CET live on stage at the Deutsche Telekom stage (3M31).

Our Chairman of the Board Arash Ashouriha (SVP Group Technology, Deutsche Telekom), together with our CEO Anita Döhler as well as the other Board Members Carlos Fernandes (VP Lead Partner Manager, Deutsche Telekom), Laurent Leboucher (Group CTO and Senior Vice President, Orange Innovation Networks), Luke Ibbetson (Head of Group R&D, Vodafone) and Mike Irizarry (Executive Vice President & CTO, UScellular) have been excited to share our achievements, findings and best practices with regards to our strategic focus topics:

  • Mastering the Route to Disaggregation / Operating Disaggregated Networks
  • Green Future Networks
  • 6G

We invite you to also check out our recently published actionable recommendations and guidelines for two of our strategic focus topics:

1) 6G Requirements and Design Considerations:https://bit.ly/3YYGHtj
2) Green Future Networks: KPIs and Target Values for Green Network Assessment:https://bit.ly/3Ew5Zqf
3) Green Future Networks: Telco Supply Chain Sustainability:https://bit.ly/41szHX5

Many thanks to all participants who joined in person and virtually. The presentation can be downloaded here:

Download
Green Future Networks- KPIs and Target Values for Green Network Assessment

NGMN Identifies Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Target Values for Assessing Green Networks

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 22nd, 2023. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) today published ‘Green Future Networks: KPIs and Target Values for Green Network Assessment’ addressing the key issue of how operators measure, report, track, and act on their environmental and energy footprints, while maintaining high service quality for end users.

Measuring progress towards environmental goals is a critical success factor for operators as they move forward on their journeys towards greater environmental sustainability and energy efficiency in their networks and operations.

“NGMN’s vision is to provide impactful guidance to the industry with Green Future Networks being a core strategic priority”, said Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN. “With the publication of KPIs and Target Values for assessing Green Networks, we are realising that vision by supporting and enabling operators and their wider ecosystem partners to measure and manage their progress towards their sustainability goals”, she added.

This latest NGMN publication outlines a set of KPIs and target values alongside a framework for consolidating the KPIs into an overall measure. The framework encompasses two major pillars: Environmental KPIs as well as Energy and Quality of Experience KPIs. The outlined KPIs build upon and utilise the best practices of existing telco sustainability initiatives and frameworks and, in an industry first, define target values and a scoring methodology for consolidating multiple KPIs into a single measure. Further NGMN suggests to combine energy efficiency and service quality KPIs to produce a useful measure of how an operator is improving its energy efficiency while maintaining the high service quality end users expect from their mobile network.

As the industry gains experience with these metrics, it is anticipated that the KPIs and the framework will be further developed to ensure continued alignment with industry needs. This will include ensuring that the NGMN KPIs and framework continue to be aligned with work of other industry bodies – with the ultimate aim of ensuring a single set of industry wide agreed KPIs.

This publication was developed with input from across the industry – with NGMN Partners representing operators and vendors, and with umlaut (part of Accenture) as a major contributor to this work. 

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.

The publication can be downloaded from here.

6G Requirements _and Design Considerations

NGMN guides the industry with 6G Requirements and Design Considerations

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 14th, 2023. 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.

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.

The publication can be downloaded from here.

Green Future Networks

NGMN Identifies Best Practices for Telco Supply Chain Sustainability

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Frankfurt, Germany, January 17, 2023. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) today published ‘Green Future Networks: Telco Supply Chain Sustainability’ addressing the key issue of how operators can work with their supply chains to reduce carbon emissions. Reducing carbon emissions from the supply chain is of critical importance to operators’ roadmaps to net zero carbon.

“Cutting carbon emissions to tackle climate change is an issue that challenges all industries. The mobile industry is meeting this challenge head-on”, said Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology, Deutsche Telekom and NGMN Board Chairman. “Our work at NGMN is an important step in enabling operators and their suppliers to identify practical ways in which they can work together to reduce carbon emissions. Deutsche Telekom targets net-zero emissions at the latest by 2040. With more than 95%  emissions generated from our value chain, partnering with our suppliers is critical to meeting our net zero goals. To support the industry, we shared our best practice examples in this publication”, he added.

Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO and SVP Orange Innovation Networks, Orange and NGMN Board Member, added: “Climate change is the single biggest challenge facing global society today. At Orange, we are proud to have collaborated with the industry to create these impactful NGMN guidelines to help operators and their supply chain partners meet their sustainability objectives and reduce carbon emissions.”

“Green Future Networks is a core strategic priority of NGMN”, explained Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN. “Telco Supply Chain Sustainability is the first publication of several scheduled for 2023 and it is apt that it is covering the supply chain where collaboration between operators and their partners is so critical to both parties’ success in tackling climate change. NGMN provides the platform to enable the industry to work together on key topics such as sustainability, network disaggregation and 6G – all of which require extensive industry-wide collaboration to be truly successful.”

In this first publication of NGMN’s Green Future Networks Phase 2 in 2023, the key challenges mobile operators face in developing sustainable supply chains are outlined. A review of the emerging regulatory and standards environment is conducted. Approaches and best practices in developing sustainable supply chains are identified by relating the emerging business and regulatory environment to examples of the changes that operators and their supply chain partners may need to make, both at strategic and operational levels. Integrating sustainability goals into the operator’s core objectives is of key importance as well as selecting suppliers whose own sustainability strategies are aligned with these goals. Finally, a checklist based on the best practices in the industry is provided to support operators in developing a sustainable procurement strategy. Examples from across the industry are included that highlight that companies are already embracing many of the concepts identified in this publication.

The publication can be downloaded from here: https://www.ngmn.org/publications/green-future-networks-telco-supply-chain-sustainability.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.

ngmn board

NGMN continues its successful path with Chairman Arash Ashouriha being re-elected for a second term

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Frankfurt, Germany, December 13, 2022. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) announces its Board Chairman and Board Members for the term 2022 – 2024, starting November 23, 2022. All Board Members were newly confirmed and Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation of Deutsche Telekom, was unanimously elected to extend his Chairmanship for another term of two years. Under his direction, between 2020 and 2022, NGMN successfully performed a significant re-positioning and transformation executing its new strategy to focus on “Mastering the Route to Disaggregation with a spotlight on the E2E Operating Model”, “Green Future Networks” and “6G”, whilst continuing to support 5G’s full potential.

Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board, said: “I am honoured to be elected again as NGMN’s Board Chairman. Within the past two years, the challenges of our industry have further increased, we are facing very exciting times. In collaboration with NGMN’s membership and with my Board Member colleagues specifically, my goal is to continue unleashing synergies to further provide a distinct value in supporting the industry’s successful journey towards disaggregated networks, the reduction of carbon footprint by following an end-to-end approach and paving the way for 6G’s success. Our successes were only possible with the support of all NGMN Members and the entire Partnership. Going forward, their continuous active engagement, representing the whole value chain, is of utmost importance.”

Anita Döhler, CEO, NGMN Alliance, said:” I would like to thank Arash for his great leadership, dedication and guidance during the past two years and I look forward to continuing NGMN’s success-journey together. Whilst a lot has been achieved already, it is extremely important to continue our focus on the industry’s most important topics, delivering a clear and tangible value to the ecosystem and to end-users. I am confident, that we will continue to follow the successful path with Arash’s direction and with Deutsche Telekom as a strong Member Partner, fully backed by the commitment of the entire NGMN Board.”

Arash Ashouriha’s re-election acknowledges NGMN’s success in addressing the industry’s most important opportunities and challenges today and in the future. It is a strong commitment to further drive the execution of the alliance’s strategy for the benefit of the industry and end-users.

NGMN’s work of the past two years comprises of, among others, the publication of around 30 strong recommendations and impactful guidelines to the industry, with major highlights: the first MNO view on “6G Drivers & Vision”, followed by “6G Use Cases and Analysis”, the MNO view on “E2E Operating Model of Disaggregated Networks”, and very important sustainability guidelines, including “Network Energy Efficiency”, the “Eco-Design of Products” and “E2E Services Footprint Reduction”. NGMN will further continue its strategy to provide impactful guidance and blueprints to the industry and the entire value chain. NGMN’s well-known executive and boutique Industry Conference & Exhibition (IC&E) in September 2022 in Paris reflected the enormous significance of its strategic focus topics and the growing impact of the alliance with the industry’s renowned telco leaders exchanging their insights and visions on the future of mobile communications.

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

Note to Editors

NGMN Alliance Board for 2022-2024:

Arash Ashouriha (Chairman) (SVP Group Technology and Innovation, Deutsche Telekom)

Joachim Gross (Chief Network Architect, 1&1)

Wolfgang Fleischer (Head of Network Virtualization, A1 Group, Telekom Austria)

Stephen Howe (Chief Technology and Information Officer, Bell Canada)

Howard Watson (Group CTO, BT)

Yuhong Huang (General Manager China Mobile Research Institute, China Mobile)

Hey-Chyi Young (VP of Chunghwa Telecom Labs, Chunghwa Telecom)

Anita Döhler (Chief Executive Officer, NGMN Alliance)

Naoki Tani (Executive General Manager of R&D Innovation Division, NTT Docomo Inc.)

Laurent Leboucher (Group CTO and Senior Vice President Orange Innovation Networks, Orange)

Mark Chong (Group CTO, Singtel)

Takki Yu (Head of Access Network Development Team, SK Telecom)

Arvin L. Siena (Vice President & Head – Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, PLDT Inc. & Smart Communications)

Ulf Ewaldsson (SVP, Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile US)

Yogesh Malik (EVP and CTIO, Tele2)

Stefan Jäverbring (CTO and Head of Network, Telia Company)

Bernard Bureau (VP Network and Architecture Strategy, Chief Technology Office, TELUS)

Andrea Calvi (Head of Technology Evolution & Innovation, TIM)

Gediz Sezgin (Chief Network Technologies Officer, Turkcell)

Michael S. Irizarry, Ph.D. (Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Engineering and Information Technology, UScellular)

Luke Ibbetson (Head of Group R&D, Vodafone)

 

ODiN - Operating Disaggregated Networks

NGMN Paves the Way for Disaggregated Networks’ Operating Models

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Frankfurt, Germany, October 18, 2022. Today, 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.

Cover image Press and Industry Briefing on 1th March 2022

NGMN Press And Industry Briefing 2022

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Thank you for joining our annual NGMN Press & Industry Briefing at Mobile World Congress on March 1st from 1:30 – 2:30 pm CET live on stage at the Deutsche Telekom stand (3M31).

Our Chairman of the Board Arash Ashouriha together with our CEO Anita Döhler presented an update on NGMN’s growth momentum and strategic focus topics:

  • Mastering the Route to Disaggregation/ Operating Disaggregated Networks
  • 6G
  • Green Future Networks

The present and virtual audience was filled with NGMN Board Members, industry experts and members of the press. Highly interesting questions were posed in the live Q&A following the presentation.

The presentation of the briefing can be downloaded here.

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6G USE CASES AND ANALYSIS

NGMN IDENTIFIES 6G USE CASE

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 22, 2022:

The identification of 6G use cases is key to predicting major trends in future usage scenarios and will help to steer the needs and requirements for future generational change. Therefore, operators, technology suppliers and academic advisors in NGMN joined forces and contributed their views on which 6G use cases they predict will emerge in the future decade. The result is published in NGMN’s “6G Use Cases and Analysis” White Paper released today.

These predictions will feed into the ITU-R IMT Vision for 2030 and beyond, specifying future connectivity requirements followed by the work of Standards Development Organizations.

A total of 50 use cases were identified, categorised into 4 classes, and mapped into 14 generic use cases. The four classes are:

Enhanced Human Communication – including use cases that have the potential to enrich human communications, such as immersive experience, telepresence & multi-modal interaction.

Enhanced Machine Communication – including use cases reflecting the growth in collaborative robotics, and autonomous machines, the requirement for sensing the surrounding environment and the need for robots to communicate among themselves and with humans.

Enabling Services – including use cases that require additional features, such as high accuracy location, mapping, environmental, or body sensing data.

Network Evolution – describing aspects related to the evolution of core technologies including AI as a service, energy efficiency, and delivering ubiquitous coverage.

High-level analyses and assessments of use cases were conducted at an early stage in several areas,­ including potential technology components, feasibility, and differentiation to 5G.

Societal needs, differentiated market demands, and operational necessities are key drivers to prioritise the use cases to guide the 6G system design. An important imperative in 6G drivers is environmental sustainability, both in terms of 6G eco-design as well as its enabling impact to reduce the environmental carbon footprint of industries and human activities. Aspects such as security, trust and privacy are also central in considering future technologies.

Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D, Vodafone and Member of the NGMN Board says: “Vodafone is optimistic about how technology innovation can enhance the future and improve people’s lives. Vodafone is delighted to be co-leading the NGMN 6G initiative and helping to define the role and purpose of 6G, together with our co-leads from other geographical regions and the broader NGMN community. We aim to build a digital society that enhances socio-economic progress, embraces everyone and does not come at the cost of our planet.”

Anita Döhler, NGMN CEO states: ”6G is one of our strategic focus topics. Our 6G project is a true global collaboration among operators, vendors and research organisations as well as external stakeholders. With our 6G Use Cases and Analysis, we continue our commitment to providing impactful guidance to the industry in developing 6G, building on our 6G Drivers and Vision. We invite interested industry players to join our endeavor for the benefit of the ecosystem at large.”

NGMN will further focus on these imperatives in future phases of its work on 6G, particularly with respect to demands and drivers. The Alliance expects new use cases to emerge, in support of digitisation and innovation beyond today’s imagination.

Following NGMN’s 6G Drivers and Vision publication in 2021, this publication of 6G Use Cases marks the next step towards NGMN’s work on 6G End-to-End requirements.

5G TDD UPLINK

NGMN CALLS FOR THE INDUSTRY TO SUPPORT UPLINK PERFORMANCE

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 16, 2022: 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.-ends-

Further information and NGMN recommendations:

  1. A number of verticals’ use cases require significantly higher uplink throughput and lower latency than that required by typical Mobile Broadband consumer mobile users. There are solutions available to address this uplink problem (throughput and latency). Using different TDD configurations, as one of the solutions, requires coordination between operators in order to minimize possible interference and support by regulators to achieve sufficient operational flexibility to deliver customer use cases with higher uplink requirements.
  2. Frame structure selection is an effective way of varying uplink/downlink throughput. Additional balanced or uplink oriented frame structures should be made available and interoperable by ecosystem partners (chipset, user equipment and infrastructure providers). NGMN has identified specific slot formats, DDSUU (balanced) and DSUUU (uplink oriented), as candidates for specific frequency ranges (FR1 and FR2). Ecosystem partners should also support operators in making available and interoperable other possible alternative solutions identified in this White Paper to address this uplink problem.
  3. Careful selection of more balanced or uplink oriented TDD frame structures in a local network is recommended to limit the interference impact between local and wide-area public networks. However, if isolation between networks is sufficient (through physical separation, indoor with sufficient wall penetration loss, guard bands, etc.), the selection and use of TDD frame structures are less constrained and may be beneficial for services with a more balanced or uplink oriented traffic profile.
  4. In scenarios where sufficient isolation between networks is not achievable, e.g. local outdoor networks in the same or adjacent spectrum, using different TDD frame structures will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. In such cases, adoption of other uplink enhancing features such as SU-MIMO (Single-User Multiple Input Multiple Output) and MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output) should be considered.
  5. Future 3GPP specification enhancements, including 5G advanced and 6G, should ensure the requirements of verticals’ use cases are fulfilled with respect to UL throughput, latency, and support for the co-existence of different frame structures.
  6. Spectrum, particularly sub 6 GHz, is a critical and limited resource for mobile communications. Regulators need to carefully consider how it is assigned to ensure it can be used effectively and efficiently. Spectrum fragmentation due to reservation for certain specific usages could undermine the assignments of sufficiently large contiguous frequency blocks for 5G networks, potentially leading to under-utilization and spectrum inefficiency.