Docomo and NTT have been collaborating with Fujitsu, NEC and Nokia on trials of not-yet-standardized 6G technologies since June 2022
MWC, BARCELONA: Japanese telco NTT Docomo and its parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) have announced plans to expand experimental trials in the 6G field with five vendors including Nokia, Fujitsu, NEC, Ericsson, and Keysight Technologies.
In preparation for launch of future 6G systems, Docomo and NTT said they are already engaged in the verification of various mobile comms technologies for purposes including use of millimeter and sub-terahertz frequency bands in addition to bands currently used for 5G technology. Docomo and NTT have been collaborating with Fujitsu, NEC, and Nokia on trials of not-yet-standardized 6G, as well as related AI technologies, since June 2022.
The Japanese firms have now formally agreed with Ericsson to begin testing 6G wireless interfaces for mid-band 6GHz-15GHz frequencies, as well as sub-terahertz 100GHz bands. Also, the pair has recently agreed with Keysight Technologies to test radio propagation for ultra-wideband communication using sub-terahertz bands.
Docomo and NTT said they will conduct further 6G trials with additional vendors.
Last month, they said had achieved two key technological milestones with Nokia on the path to future 6G systems. Nokia said the first was the implementation of AI and ML into the radio air interface, effectively giving 6G radios the ability to learn. The second is the utilization of new sub-terahertz (sub-THz) spectrum to boost network capacity, the vendor added.
The various companies noted these technologies could pave the way for new immersive metaverse and extended reality (XR) experiences and a new generation of mobile applications. The companies have implemented both technologies as proofs of concept at Nokia Bell Labs in Stuttgart, Germany.
By pairing an AI-based waveform in a transmitter with a deep-learning receiver, Nokia Bell Labs researchers were able to design and implement a learning air interface that transmits data efficiently under many different scenarios. This AI/ML-based implementation significantly reduces signaling overhead, producing up to a 30 percent improvement in throughput, the trio said.
In addition, the AI-native air interface will grant 6G networks the flexibility to adapt to the type of connection demanded by an application, device or user. For instance, a network in a factory can be optimized for industrial sensors at one moment and then reconfigured for robotic systems or video surveillance.
The partners also highlighted that the sub-THz bands have never been designated for cellular use because of their propagation characteristics, but new techniques such as beamforming could open up those frequencies to future 6G networks. These higher frequencies are well suited for high-accuracy radio sensing, which will likely be another key feature of 6G. In their proof-of-concept, researchers from these three companies were able to demonstrate a 25 Gbps connection on a single 256QAM stream over a carrier frequency of 144 GHz using beamforming.
Nokia, Docomo and NTT had initially launched their 6G collaboration in June, 2022.
6G systems are expected to be commercially launched by 2030, while the first phase of standardization will likely start from 2025, leading to the first 6G specification in 3GPP Release 21 by 2028. However, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT recently unveiled plans to commercialize an initial 6G network service in 2028.
