6G State of Play in Finland - Matti Latva-Aho

Many new ideas for improving the capabilities of 6G compared to 5G have been proposed in various initiatives worldwide. Verticals-driven variety of highly different use cases calls for flexibility and customization of RAN solutions for efficient deployments.

O-RAN is one viable way to make such networks real. At the same time, 6G Metaverse-type applications are pushing researchers to explore the limits of realizable communication systems, including sub-THz radios, metamaterials, and semantic communications, as a few examples.

At this point, which new ideas will be mature enough to commercialize 6G towards the end of this decade?

WRC-23, starting right now, has intensified global discussions on 6G spectrum without common views or solutions; interest towards cm wave band and dynamic spectrum sharing concepts is increasing in many parts of the world.

Digital services will be immersively deployed during the 6G era leading to the so-called Society 5.0. They play a vital role in improving the efficiency of industrial processes and many functions of societies worldwide. This sets enormous challenges for arranging sufficient and trustworthy coverage and services no matter where the users are. The challenge is not just technical but would require a new type of spectrum regulation, ownership of networks as well and context-dependent service offerings. What do these mean from a technology enabler point of view, what are the necessary changes needed to value chains and ecosystems, and how should the future networks be developed to enable truly ubiquitous digital services?

These are some of the key areas covered in this talk. Besides these questions, the talk will briefly introduce some key areas of the 6G Flagship research programme started at the University of Oulu in 2018.