Six Insights into 6G: Orientation and Input for Developing Your Strategic 6G Research Plan

TL;DR

This paper summarizes expert insights from workshops to guide strategic 6G research, focusing on societal impacts, use cases, and non-technical challenges for future development.

Contribution

It provides a non-technical strategic framework and identifies key impact areas and research priorities for 6G development.

Findings

Six impact areas crucial for 6G development

Top 10 recommendations for organizations

Top 10 research areas for 6G advancement

Abstract

This paper is a summary of the findings from a series of workshops which were held by Thinknet 6G and MUENCHNER KREIS in 2021, with the goal to provide orientation and input for developing a strategic 6G research plan. The topics selected for the workshops are aspects of 6G that we expect will have a significant impact on other industries and on society: - 6G as both a communication infrastructure and a sensing infrastructure - The extensive use of artificial intelligence in 6G - The security and resilience of 6G This paper does not go into the technical details of how to develop and implement 6G. Rather, it provides input from experts from both the wireless industry as well as from other sectors about (mostly) non-technical topics that will need to be addressed in parallel with the technical developments, such as new use cases, regulation, communication with the public, and cross-industry cooperation. We have identified six areas that will have a significant impact on the development and use of 6G, and that organizations must consider as they begin their plans and designs for 6G. Based on these six impact areas and on the discussion in the workshops, we compiled a list of the top 10 recommendations for specific areas where organizations should place their focus when developing their strategic plan for 6G. In addition, for our readers who are involved in 6G research, be it at a university, at a research institute or in industrial research, we also included a summary of the top 10 areas that require additional research, again based on the input received in the workshops. A version of this paper is also available at www.thinknet-6g.de. If you had a copy of the preview version of this paper, the text is exactly the same. Only the layout and graphics have changed.