MWE 2018 FR2A-2

A View on Cellular Technology Beyond 5GAmitava Ghosh1, Troels Kolding2, Andreas Maeder3, Simone Redana3, Mikko Uusitalo4
1

Radio Interface Group, Standardization Research, Nokia Bell Labs
Systems and Protocols, Standardization Research, Nokia Bell Labs
3
Network and Architecture, Standardization Research, Nokia Bell Labs
4
Wireless Advanced Technology, Access Labs, Nokia Bell Labs
2Abstract
The first phase of 5G standardization has been completed and 3GPP is now addressing the next set of features
beyond Rel-15 of 3GPP specification. 3GPP 5G System (5G New Radio (NR) and 5G Core) provides a unified,flexible radio and core network capable of supporting various 5G vertical applications such as automotive,healthcare, industry, smart city, etc. beside mobile broadband. In the next phase of 5G standardization, Rel-16 andRel-17 will address several new features such as Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB), MIMO enhancements,
Industrial IoT, 5G beyond 52.6 GHz, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN). In this article, we look even further into thefuture to what comes Beyond 5G (B5G). While 5G started out with “Internet of Everything (IoE)”, we proposethat B5G extends this vision to “Internet of Everything, Everybody, and Everywhere (IoE3)” having an evenstronger focus on human needs and covering all of Earth (and even space).
Keywords: Industrial IoT (IIoT), Network Automation, Converged Edge & Core Clouds, Non-Terrestrial Network(NTN), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Open source.
1. Introduction
The first phase of 5G standardization has been
completed and 3GPP is addressing the next set of features
beyond Rel-15 of 3GPP specification. In this article, we
provide a look at what comes next i.e. Beyond 5G (B5G).
In Section 2, we start with a discussion on what are therequirements and use cases for a B5G system and how itwill help to expand the human possibilities of thetechnology to make our lives better. In Section 3, weaddress the timeline for B5G and the spectrum needed tomake this technology come to fruition. In Section 4, wemove on to describing the major technology components
needed to meet the B5G requirements covering both radio
access and core network architecture. This includes, forexample, improving spectral efficiencies over 5G NR
systems through enhanced CoMP and beam management
techniques; further reducing one-way, end-to-end latency
to the sub milliseconds range; providing coverage to theworld using terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks;
exploiting the high mmWave and Terahertz bands toincrease capacity; and using automation in network slicing
operations. The paper will further discuss how AI boosted
network automation can be used to improve operator anduser experience and to simplify network ownership.
Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section 5.

trends and scenarios. The next frontier in trend includes i)enabling the Internet of Humans (from everything in 5G toeverybody in B5G; ii) extending coverage to uncovered
areas of earth and even space; iii) embracing energy andgreen KPIs into all network management functions; and iv)
enabling new demanding eco-systems and supply models(open specs to open source, faster time to market,
embracing specialized scenarios and customization). The
B5G drivers based on scenarios are i) full earth coveragewith maximum capacity for outdoor wide area networks;ii) optimized cost, capacity and coverage for indoornetworks; iii) customized private networks for e.g.
industrial automation and iv) support for sub millisecond
latency, high reliability and determinism for specialized
outdoor and indoor networks.
The proposed requirements are summarized in Fig. 1.

2. B5G Requirements and use cases
The drivers towards B5G can be classified based on

Fig. 1: Requirements for B5G.