ATIS’ Next G Alliance published a white paper with the aim of showing how the ICT industry can contribute to reducing overall energy consumption and achieving environmental sustainability objectives while accelerating progress toward future 6G technology.
The white paper, called “Green G: The Path Towards Sustainable 6G”, identifies key areas where the ICT sector, including the mobile infrastructure, radio access technology, data center industry and device manufacturers, have made significant improvements over the last decade in reducing the overall energy consumption of network traffic. The report also highlights the importance of sustainability in future generations of wireless in a world that grows more connected, with users’ data needs increasing each year.
“The Next G Alliance is charting the course to the 6G future, and this brings a great opportunity to ensure that energy conservation and sustainability objectives are built into next-generation mobile networks by design,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. “The insights of the Green G white paper will be integral to the National 6G Roadmap that the Next G Alliance is also publishing in early 2022. This work is setting the stage to put North America at the forefront of wireless technology leadership for the next decade and beyond.”
“It is now clear that all industries must reduce their carbon footprint and overall environmental impact, to achieve a 1.5 degree future, and ensure a livable planet for future generations,” said Marie-Paul Odini, chair of the Next G Alliance Green G Working Group. “With this first white paper, we want to highlight a number of areas that need to be tackled and provide recommendations. We also encourage other people to join our effort and contribute to this transition.”
The whitepaper also highlighted that next-generation mobile networks will be a major sustainability enabler for other industries and verticals to achieve their own sustainability goals. In addition to improving energy efficiency, the Green G report highlights how industry has an opportunity to participate more fully in the circular economy via improvements to manufacturing, supply chain management and recycling.
Launched by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), the Next G Alliance is an initiative to advance North American wireless technology leadership over the next decade through private-sector-led efforts with the initial focus on as-yet-unstandardized 6G systems.
Last month, ATIS’ Next G Alliance and the 5G Forum in Korea announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost cooperation in next-generation mobile communications.
The MoU defines how the two organizations will exchange information on missions, goals and work activities, and explore areas of future cooperation. When the Next G Alliance completes the National 6G Roadmap in early 2022, collaboration may also include: exchange of information regarding 6G technology trends; discussion on developing 6G roadmap; collaboration on global standardization and spectrum; analysis of socioeconomic aspects of 6G, and other areas as agreed between the two organizations regarding 6G promotion.
Many other countries and regions, including China, the European Union, and Japan have also launched projects, programs, and alliances to shape the 6G framework and main business focus.
RCR Wireless News published an editorial report about future 6G technology dubbed “Is it really time to start talking about 6G?”, in which key industry leaders and analysts talk about the initial efforts towards the future development of 6G. Click here to access the report.
