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The Linux Foundation and NGMN Collaborate on End-to-End 5G and Beyond

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Frankfurt, Germany, May 10, 2021: The Linux Foundation and the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN), today announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for formal collaboration regarding end-to-end 5G and beyond.

NGMN’s mission is to provide impactful industry guidance to achieve innovative and affordable mobile telecommunication services for the end user, placing a particular focus on Mastering the Route to Disaggregation, Sustainability and Green Future Networks, as well as on 6G and the continuous support of 5G’s full implementation.
This mission is complementary to the efforts of the Linux Foundation’s LF Networking and LF Edge umbrella projects, as well as others like LF Energy operating within the telecom, IoT, and networking spaces.

Creating and providing open, scalable building blocks for operators and service providers is critical to the industry adoption of 5G and beyond. Therefore, the collaboration between NGMN and the Linux Foundation will focus on end-to-end 5G architecture and beyond 5G. Specific areas of alignment may include sustainability, network automation and network autonomy based on Artificial Intelligence, security, edge cloud, virtualization, disaggregation, cloud native, and service-based architecture, to name a few.

“We very much look forward to a mutually inspiring and beneficial collaboration with The Linux Foundation. Open Source is gaining increasing relevance for the strategic topics of our Work Programmes such as Mastering the Route to Disaggregation, Green Future Networks and 6G. We are delighted to partner with The Linux Foundation to jointly drive our mission for the benefit of the global ecosystem”, said Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN Alliance.

“We are thrilled to be aligning with such an innovative, industry-leading organization,” said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “Integrating NGMN’s expertise across pivotal areas like Disaggregation, Green Future Networks, cloud native, automation, and early work on 6G into LF Networking’s 5G Super Blueprint initiative is a natural next step for the industry.”

The Linux Foundation’s vision of harmonizing open source software with open standards has been in effect for several years, including collaborations with ETSI, TMF, MEF, GSMA, the O-RAN Alliance, and more. NGMN also maintains longstanding co-operations with all of these organisations. The alignment between The Linux Foundation and NGMN represents the latest in a long-standing effort to integrate open source and open standards across the industry.

6G to Consider Societal Requirements
First NGMN 6G White Paper Presents 6G Drivers and Vision

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Frankfurt, Germany: Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance publishes its first 6G White Paper focusing on the 6G Drivers and Vision. As a global organisation representing the entire value chain, NGMN is set to take the lead in providing impactful guidance for global 6G activities to respond to the needs of end users, societies, mobile network operators and the ecosystem as a whole.

In this White Paper, the NGMN Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) identify the key drivers for 6G and outline their vision for 6G and the future transition of networks enabling differentiated services with expanded market opportunities and novel experience. Furthermore, the paper outlines the key challenges to be considered in a journey towards 6G, and emphasizes the need for a healthy and unified global ecosystem and standards.

NGMN believes that the continuing evolution of the mobile industry, and the underlying technologies, must be guided by the imperative to safeguard the three fundamental needs facing the society at large, and the telecoms industry in specific, namely:

• Societal Goals: Future technologies should contribute further to the success of a number of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) such as: environmental sustainability, efficient delivery of health care, reduction in poverty and inequality, improvements in public safety and privacy, support for ageing populations, and managing expanding urbanization.
• Operational Necessities: There is a strong need to make the planning, deployment, operations, management, and performance of the mobile operators’ networks more efficient.
• Market Expectations: Customer requirements need to be satisfied by offering new services and capabilities, supported by evolving technologies in a cost-effective manner.

A differentiated technology evolution is required. Any new technological development should be assessed with respect to its differentiation from 5G, and any improvements should be benchmarked, including pragmatic deployment scenarios, with the law of diminishing returns in mind.

As operators are continuously engaging with end users, including vertical industries, they are in an excellent position to understand their future needs. To address the mentioned next generation drivers in a holistic way, it is also important to further engage with user groups representing societal needs.

The NGMN Board strongly recommends that the above described drivers are prioritised in the global research, design and development of the next generation of standards and technologies.
Anita Doehler, CEO NGMN, says: “6G is one of our key strategic topics. With our future vision of 6G and the related NGMN Work Programme, we are committed to setting the global footprint and providing impactful guidance to the industry in developing 6G. We enable a unique collaboration among the NGMN Partnership including operators, vendors and research organisations and external stakeholders. Going forward, the entire NGMN Alliance will work on use cases and end-to-end requirements. We invite interested industry players to join our endeavor for the benefit of the global ecosystem.”

NGMN has a track record in substantially impacting 4G and 5G development, and is best positioned to provide relevant and timely guidance to the whole ecosystem throughout the 6G development cycle.
The White Paper 6G Drivers and Vision is the first of a series of deliverables that NGMN will publish within the next years. NGMN will build upon the high-level guidance provided in this White Paper and engage further in greater details and specifics.

NGMN 6G Drivers and Vision

NGMN 6G Drivers and Vision

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In this paper, the NGMN MNOs, with input from NGMN Partners (vendors, research institutions), outline their vision for 6G representing a future evolution of networks enabling differentiated services with expanded market opportunities and novel experience.  It first describes the drivers for 6G, and the key necessities to guide the future technologies to respond to the needs of the end users, societies, and MNOs. This is followed with NGMN’s vision of 6G, its novelty and capabilities to meet the drivers identified.

We discuss a number of fundamental aspects, including new scope and approach, that need to be considered in design and development of the next generation of standards and technologies. Furthermore, we recommend that research and the development of future ecosystems prioritize the key gaps and challenges discussed in this paper.

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NGMN Claims Pole Position in Disaggregation Operating Model, Green Networks and 6G

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Frankfurt, Germany: Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance announces its new strategy and claims pole position in addressing the key major Operator & Ecosystem challenges in the coming years.

As an operator driven organisation, NGMN is in a unique position to provide value, guidance and leadership to its members and the whole ecosystem in:

  • Mastering the route to Disaggregation
  • Sustainability / Green Future Networks
  • 6G

Anita Doehler, CEO NGMN, says: “Operators are facing challenges on their route to disaggregation, cloudification and softwarization. One burning topic in this area is the design and execution of effective new E2E operating models. Green Future Networks is another highly important topic the industry ecosystem needs to jointly approach. In addition, early work on 6G has started. Therefore, we have streamlined our Work Programme to focus on these three extremely relevant topics to deliver significant impact in 2021 and beyond. At the same time, we remain committed to further support 5G’s full implementation.”

Mastering the Route to Disaggregation

For mastering disaggregated, cloud- and software-based networks, Mobile Network Operators need to start preparing now for future-proof operating models that are built on the orchestration of powerful ecosystems of solution partners, openness and flexibility to integrate new partners and technologies, highly diverse set of skills and capabilities to drive value and efficiency. NGMN’s new Work Programme will thus focus on the end-to-end operating model, considering, amongst other, the following key aspects: processes, technology, tools and skill requirements. NGMN will provide blueprints as well as relevant guidance towards the industry players and lay out roles and opportunities provided by disaggregation. The initiative aims to shorten time to market and to provide support in the selection and deployment of efficient operating models by Mobile Network Operators.

Providing Impactful Guidance for Green Future Networks

The application of various techniques to improve network energy performance is one fundamental objective for Mobile Network Operators since the number of users, connected devices and general usage continue to grow. The ICT network consumes the most energy in the content delivery process and electricity represents our principal source of greenhouse gas emissions. An additional objective is waste reduction, amongst other enabled by the eco-design of products and equipment. To tackle such important topics, this well-established NGMN project focuses on four major aspects: end-to-end services footprint, eco design, network energy efficiency and on-board metering. Consolidating a common view amongst operators and collaborating with equipment vendors and other industry players enables NGMN to provide a significant industry contribution in achieving UN and GSMA sustainability goals. NGMN plans to release frequent impactful guidance on sustainability to the ecosystem.

 Driving Successful Implementation of 6G

Work focusing on beyond 5G has already started worldwide. The NGMN Alliance strongly believes that societal and operational requirements need to be considered in the development of a new generation. Operators are in a unique position to engage with end users, including vertical industries as well as user groups representing societal needs. The NGMN Alliance is determined to provide early and timely direction for global 6G activities. Its 6G Work Programme currently focuses on vision and drivers, including societal and operational aspects for 6G. This will be followed by use cases and end-to-end system requirements. Actively engaging with different stakeholders and facilitating multilateral cooperation with the wider ecosystem at the right time will support in developing a meaningful vision and drive a successful implementation of 6G in the future. NGMN plans to publish the first version of its “6G Vision & Drivers” White Paper around the end of Q1 of 2021.

Interested industry players are invited to join NGMN in these important initiatives.

NGMN 6G Vision and Drivers Project

NGMN Board has launched a project focussing on the Vision and Drivers for 6G

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NGMN 6G Vision and Drivers Project from NGMN Office on Vimeo.

Frankfurt, Germany – The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Board has launched a project focussing on the Vision and Drivers for 6G.
The NGMN Alliance has provided industry-wide guidance on 4G and 5G, supporting global alignment as well as ensuring that next generation mobile networks meet the ecosystem requirements and, ultimately, satisfy customer demand and expectations.A prominent example of NGMN’s deliverables is the first 5G White Paper published in 2015, which had substantial impact on 5G’s standardization and paved the way for 5G Commercialization, followed by the second 5G White Paper (5GWP2) published just recently in July 2020.The NGMN Work Programme focuses on reaching the full 5G potential and supports the industry on delivering and following through with its 5G promise. Drawing on the recommendations of the second 5G White Paper, the NGMN Alliance continues to work on existing 5G activities as well as launching new activities such as the Green Future Networks project, Vertical Industry Engagement and Network Slicing Requirements for Operating System of 5G Smartphones. These activities will ensure 5G continues to evolve and support customers and industry for the next 10 years and beyond.With its new “6G Vision and Drivers” project, NGMN intends to provide early and timely direction for global 6G activities, which will develop the mobile network technology for operation in the future. In this context, NGMN will also facilitate an information exchange within its internal partnership and relevant external stakeholders. NGMN is very excited to be working on this future vision project and to set the footprint for generations to come.Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the Board of NGMN said: “As we continue to implement and further develop 5G to maximize the benefit of its potential, our goal as NGMN is to remain at the forefront of next generation mobile networks. It is therefore essential that we start anticipating the future societal needs and elaborate the drivers for mobile communications in the future.”Anita Döhler, CEO of NGMN said: “The NGMN Board is committed to further drive the implementation of 5G. At the same time, we are looking at the future with our new work on 6G. Our organisation with its network operators, vendors and research associations has played such an important role for the requirements setting of 4G and 5G, and we will continue to provide guidance also for the next generation mobile networks beyond 5G. Interested parties are welcome to contribute to the “NGMN 6G Vision and Drivers” activity.”

Atis

ATIS Promoting U.S. Leadership on the Path to 6G

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On 19th May 2020 ATIS, the North American Alliance for Telecoms Industry Solutions,  published a “Call to Action” from the leading companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry to join with the US government in a shared commitment that will put the United States at the forefront of technology leadership for the next decade.
Follow this link to read the full publication: https://sites.atis.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Promoting-US-Leadership-on-Path-to-6G.pdf