Deutsche Telekom said that the ‘6G NeXt’ project, which involves nine partners, had its kick-off last week in Berlin
German operator Deutsche Telekom announced it will be leading a 6G initiative as part of a wider program funded by the German government.
The research project, dubbed ‘6G NeXt’, is part of the “6G industry projects for research into integrated systems and sub-technologies for 6th generation mobile communications” program, which is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Deutsche Telekom noted that the ‘6G NeXt’ project, which involves nine partners from industry and science, had its kick-off last week in Berlin.
The European telco said that future XR applications and services will generate huge amounts of data that needs to be transmitted with high speed and reliability. One of the core tasks of the project is to develop a high-speed software layer with native AI network optimization for real-time data processing and enabling a dynamic distribution of complex computing tasks to the optimal location.
The 6G NeXt project will seek to develop a scalable, modular and flexible end-to-end infrastructure, which will be implemented at different locations as a test bed platform for research on the complex XR applications.
Deutsche Telekom said that the initiative will initially focus on two challenging use cases:
-A novel anti-collision system for aviation using the example of drones at airports with mixed air traffic. The telco explained that this application requires low latency, synchronization of data streams and the ability to compute data in a distributed manner (split computing).
-An interactive end-to-end transmission of real-time 3D holographic video with photorealistic content and realistic 3D depth for video conferencing and monitoring. This application requires high bit rates upstream and downstream as well as distributed and intelligent video processing.
The applications investigated have real-time processing and high data rate requirements that exceed capabilities of today’s 5G networks. The project partners will conduct research using the developed applications to understand requirements for future 6G networks and will provide contributions towards standardization.
“6G NeXt is focused on developing a foundational infrastructure where we can test and validate advanced immersive XR experiences even in the most demanding use cases,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, head of T-Labs at Deutsche Telekom. “We are excited to collaborate with leading German startups and SMEs who will contribute their ideas and requirements for this innovative technology direction.”
Earlier this month, Deutsche Telekom announced that it was taking the lead for the ‘6G-TakeOff’, Together with a total of 22 partners, Deutsche Telekom is forming a consortium with the aim of developing a uniform 6G architecture for future communications networks comprising ground stations, flying infrastructure platforms and satellites.
The German carrier explained that base stations on board satellites and flying platforms can help close the remaining coverage gaps of ground-based base stations as they offer the possibility to provide additional network capacity temporarily and locally as needed.
Last year, the BMBF launched the funding measure “6G industrial projects for research into holistic systems and sub-technologies for 6th generation mobile communications” as part of the German 6G research initiative. The aim of the measures of the BMBF’s 6G initiative is to strengthen the digital and technological sovereignty of Germany and Europe by developing and helping to shape 6G at an early stage. The associated projects will initially run until 2025 and will be used to research the new 6G communications standard, which has yet to be defined. Standardization by the 3GPP organization is also expected to begin in 2025, while the first 6G networks are expected to be launched in 2030.
