Strategic Focus Topics

NGMN’s Strategic Focus Topics reflect its objectives and working principles, focusing on the priorities set by the NGMN Alliance Board.

These topics are continuously adapted to align with NGMN’s evolving priorities, ensuring responsiveness to the mobile industry’s changing landscape. For 2026 and beyond, NGMN’s priorities are 6G guidance and requirements including driving 5G’s full potential and advancing the Strategic Focus Topics:

6G*
Green Future Networks

*includes guidance required to master the route to disaggregation e.g. cloud-native networks and network automation

6G

PROVIDING GUIDANCE AND KEY REQUIREMENTS FOR DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE EVOLUTION*

*includes guidance required to master the route to disaggregation e.g. cloud-native networks and network automation

Programme Co-Leads:

Quan Zhao, China Mobile
David Lister, Vodafone

Objectives:

Providing guidance and key requirements for design considerations and network architecture evolution:

Deliver impactful 6G insights and guidance from an operator’s perspective in order to provide timely guidance to the industry
Play a key role in avoiding fragmentation of global 6G standards and ecosystem to achieve affordable deployments
Identify a set of high-level business drivers including social responsibility aspects and MNO operational aspects
Develop requirements by taking a customer centric view
Engage with different stakeholders, monitor external 6G activities and facilitate bilateral exchange with external organizations at the right time
Identify and analyse relevant SDO’s and industry organisations to maximize NGMN’s impact

Project: 6G Architecture/Migration Options

This Project provides simplified architecture options and migration options for 6G.

Study and narrow down 6G architecture options to simplify networks and reduce complexity
Prioritise migration strategies (e.g. Multi-RAT Spectrum Sharing (MRSS), Dual-Connectivity, Dual-Stack) by analysing current networks and future deployment needs
Recommend standardisation focus areas and 3GPP study priorities

Project: Network for Agentic AI

Agentic AI drives persistent, autonomous machine interactions: lateral traffic, machine identity and trust, programmable APIs and AI-centric KPIs. For MNOs a shift from connectivity to trusted orchestration.

Use cases, demand drivers and MNO business opportunities
Impact on 5G RAN, Core and Transport
6G architecture, capabilities and new KPIs
Enablers: exposure APIs, edge, intent-based networking, identity and trust
Standardisation input and value-creation guidance

The following deliverables have been published in the 6G Programme in the previous phases:

For questions, please reach out to the designated NGMN Senior Programme Manager (external) Johann Reindl, at johann.reindl@external.ngmn.org

Green Future Networks

BUILDING SUSTAINABLE & ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS SOLUTIONS

Programme Lead:

Marie-Laure Lamouroux, Orange

With Green Future Networks, NGMN is enabling the mobile industry to further transform and meet its environmental and sustainability goals. Since the initiative started in 2021, we have identified the key opportunities and challenges and made actionable recommendations on several key areas.

Currently Phase 5 in its final stages with publications expected in Q4/2026 and Q1/2027.

Phase 5 Projects:

Resilient Networks
Sustainable AI in Telecom Networks
Cooling Strategy

Project: Resilient Networks

The project focuses on the definition of resilience in the context of telecommunication networks, the introduction of risks and related scenarios and the principles of resistance to these risks.

Mobile networks must become more resilient, with a strong emphasis on ensuring energy reliability, increasing physical infrastructure protection, and enhancing climate adaptation on a global scale.

Approaches (all-hazards theory) & definitions
Societal perspective
Operator perspective
Targeted risk clusters / scenarios
Targeted systems
Principles of resistance

Project: Sustainable AI in Telecom Networks

Address large-scale deployment of AI in telecom networks, which are increasingly focused on economic and environmental sustainability targets, is subject .

AI energy consumption and energy efficiency
Analysis of sustainable AI for added value network services
Analysis of sustainable AI for energy efficient network functionalities
Resource efficient AI solutions and models
Assessment of trade-offs between AI performance, energy use, and operational cost.

Defining metrics and measurement methods to characterize AI energy consumption and energy efficiency holistically, from a whole life cycle analysis (LCA) perspective, to enable sustainable AI-native telecom networks.

Project: Cooling Strategy

Identify the common challenges facing Mobile Operators in terms of energy demands and cooling needs, considering data growth; analyse a set of suitable cooling solutions; outline cooling strategies to address a variety of environmental and climate conditions.

Evaluation if the current approaches to cooling are fit for purpose in addressing the industry’s environmental sustainability targets and identifying where more harmonisations may be needed.

Cooling for network-side infrastructure (Data Centres and Base Stations including passive and active infrastructure).
Current and future network architecture considerations, especially components more in need of cooling solution optimisations.

The Green Future Networks Programme published the following deliverables during phase 1 – phase 4:

Metering in RAN Transport Networks (December 2025)
Energy Management and Flexibility in Mobile Networks (July 2025)
Environmental Sustainability and Reporting (May 2025)
A Roadmap to Energy Efficient Mobile Networks (July 2024)
Metering in Virtualised RAN Infrastructure (April 2024)
Reducing Environmental Impact (January 2024)
Network Energy Efficiency Phase 3A (December 2023)
Network Energy Efficiency Phase 2 (October 2023)

For questions please reach out to the designated NGMN Senior Programme Manager Amr Saeed at amr.saeed@ngmn.org.

Supporting 5G’s Full Potential

All projects not aligned with our three strategic focus topics fall under ‘Supporting 5G’s Full Potential’. Currently, this applies to the BASTA project, which is described below.

BASTA (Base Station Antenna Architecture)

Objective:

Provide the industry with an updated set of parameter definitions, measurement methodologies and reporting processes. This enables a uniform way to describe the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the network side of the radio link (Base Station Antenna).

Recommendation for Base Station Antennas V13.0 is a detailed technical reference document covering Active, Passive and Hybrid Antenna Systems. Providing RF, Electrical, Mechanical and Environmental Parameters and Recommendations. Beside Supporting XML files to allow digital data exchange between vendors and operators:

Recommendations for Base Station Antennas V13.0 (July 2025)

Utilizing this common approach for describing “base station antennas” enables more efficient and cost-effective planning, engineering, and operation of mobile networks. This approach helps ensure the high-quality mobile service that users, businesses, and industries require.

Previous to the above described unified BASTA project, the BASTA project consisted of two work streams: Active and Passive Antennas, that have published the following deliverables:

Active Antennas

Passive Antennas