Nokia, DOCOMO, and NTT team up to work on 6G

Nokia is partnering with DOCOMO and NTT to jointly define and develop key technologies towards 6G. The collaboration will focus on two proof-of-concepts for emerging 6G technologies: an artificial intelligence (AI)-based native air interface, and sub-THz radio access. These aim to demonstrate a performance gain with an AI-driven 6G air interface compared to a conventional air interface, and to show that high-data rate beamformed access can be achieved in a high frequency band at 140 GHz.

Nokia believes 6G will not just build on existing technologies and systems, but expand and transform what a network can do. It will fuse the human, physical and digital worlds to liberate our innate human potential, the company said. To achieve it, Nokia has envisioned six key technologies that will be vital components of future 6G networks: new spectrum technologies, an AI native air interface, the network as a sensor, extreme connectivity, cognitive, automated and specialised architectures, and finally, security and trust.

The initial focus of the partnership is to demonstrate the benefits of AI-based learned waveforms in the transmitter with a deep learning receiver in the mid-band, as well as to test high data rate indoor communications in the sub-THz band. These technologies have the potential to substantially improve deployment flexibility and to increase network throughput beyond that of 5G in the respective spectrum bands, and without necessarily increasing energy consumption. 

Providing high-rate access will be important in enabling enhanced and new use cases in the 6G era, such as multimodal mixed-reality telepresence and remote collaboration, massive twinning and collaborating robots.

The plan is to set up environments for experiments and demonstrations in DOCOMO and NTT premises in Japan as well as at Nokia premises in Stuttgart, Germany, and to begin performing the desired tests and measurements in 2022.

Nokia and DOCOMO have a long history of pioneering research that brings new wireless technologies to life. Starting with 3G in the 1990s, to 4G, and to today’s 5G including collaboration in 5G optical radio access networks (O-RAN), the companies have turned ideas into implementations and pushed boundaries to create optimised experiences for end users.

Naoki Tani, Executive VP and CTO at DOCOMO, said: "DOCOMO has been collaborating with Nokia since 2014 to accelerate the experimental trials for 5G wireless technology and promote the creation of new use cases. We are excited to work with Nokia to realise the 6G concept. DOCOMO and NTT will now start the experimental trials of two 6G proof-of-concepts for high-rate transmission in the sub-THz band and AI native air interface, and contribute to 6G commercialisation with vertical industry partners."

Peter Vetter, President Bell Labs Core Research, Nokia, said: “We envision that 6G will unify the human experience across the digital, physical and human worlds. We build on a long tradition of collaborations between the world-leading labs at DOCOMO and Nokia Bell Labs. 

"Nokia is very honoured to engage in this collaboration with DOCOMO and NTT, as global leading operators that are always among the first to bring new generations to the market. We look forward to working together and validating key concepts and key technologies to realise the 6G vision.”