Keysight has a collaboration with NTT Docomo and NTT to advance realistic 6G channel modeling and wireless communs simulation
In sum – what to know:
6G testing – Keysight, NTT Docomo, and NTT are advancing measurement-driven channel modeling and distributed MIMO simulation to improve the realism and repeatability of 6G research.
ISAC focus – Samsung and LG Uplus are collaborating on Integrated Sensing and Communication technology, a key 6G use case that combines communications and environmental sensing.
Migration lessons – NGMN is urging the industry to prioritize simpler migration options and avoid unnecessary complexity as standardization work for 6G accelerates.
6G research efforts are increasingly shifting from theoretical concepts toward practical validation, with recent announcements from Keysight Technologies, Samsung Electronics and their respective partners focusing on how next-generation wireless technologies can be tested and deployed in real-world environments.
Keysight announced a collaboration with Japanese companies NTT Docomo and NTT aimed at advancing realistic 6G channel modeling and wireless communication simulation. The work is part of an existing memorandum of understanding focused on 6G design, testing and measurement technologies.
According to the companies, the collaboration combines real-world radio propagation measurements with laboratory-based simulation tools. Keysight and Docomo are refining channel models using channel impulse response (CIR) data, while Keysight and NTT are advancing simulation-based evaluation of distributed MIMO systems, where geographically distributed antennas cooperate to improve coverage, capacity and reliability.
“As 6G research progresses, the industry is placing greater emphasis on understanding how wireless systems perform in complex real-world environments,” the companies said in the announcement.
Peng Cao, vice president and general manager of Keysight’s Wireless Test Group, said: “By combining real world measurement data with advanced modeling and simulation, this collaboration enables more repeatable validation of next generation architectures and helps reduce the risk of transitioning from research to deployment.”
Separately, Samsung Electronics and LG Uplus have recently announced a joint research initiative focused on Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), which the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) has identified as one of the three key usage scenarios for 6G.
The companies said ISAC technology uses existing communications infrastructure to gather information about surrounding environments without dedicated sensing equipment. By analyzing wireless signals reflected from nearby objects, ISAC can detect factors such as movement, distance, and direction.
The partners plan to evaluate ISAC performance on existing 5G networks and in the 7 GHz band, a candidate spectrum range for future 6G services. Initial efforts will focus on human detection and network operations, while future work will explore combining wireless sensing information with camera imagery through multimodal AI technologies.
“ISAC is a core technology that transforms communications networks into sensing platforms, enabling users, network operators, and industries to experience the full value of 6G,” said JinGuk Jeong, executive vice president and head of the Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research.
While vendors and operators continue to explore new 6G capabilities, the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) is calling on the industry to apply lessons learned from 5G deployments.
In two new publications, “6G architecture and migration options – An operator view” and “6G deployment timeframe considerations – An operator view,” NGMN argues that enabling the full potential of 6G will require a different standardization approach focused on simplification and smooth migration.
The alliance said operators should converge early on a primary migration approach to reduce long-term complexity across devices, radio access networks, and core networks. NGMN highlighted Multi-RAT Spectrum Sharing (MRSS) as a baseline solution while noting that further work is required to improve its efficiency.
The organization also emphasized that commercial deployment of standardized 6G capabilities is likely to emerge in the early years of the 2030s and warned against rushing specifications before they are fully mature.
Laurent Leboucher, chairman of the NGMN Alliance board and Orange Group chief technology officer, said: “The transition to 6G will present significant opportunities, but only if the industry prioritizes migration paths that build on existing network assets, minimize operational complexity and deliver tangible benefits from the earliest deployment stages.”
Together, the announcements illustrate two parallel trends shaping the future of 6G: continued investment in validating new technologies and growing operator pressure to ensure that future networks are introduced with greater simplicity and scalability than previous generations.
