Category: Press Release

Publication 6G Requirements and Design Considerations Cover

NGMN guides the industry with 6G Requirements and Design Considerations

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 14th, 2023. In its latest 6G publication, “6G Requirements and Design Considerations”, the NGMN Alliance (NGMN) has defined several important requirements for 6G. By providing this guidance to the industry, NGMN takes on a leading role in avoiding fragmentation of future 6G standards and achieving affordable deployments and services valued by end users.

The publication offers guidance and input to Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) working towards realisation of the vision of communication systems for 2030 and beyond, currently being developed by ITU-R. It has been developed on the understanding that there will be an evolution towards 6G without distinction between any new 6G technology, an evolution of 5G or a combination of both.

New approaches have been identified within this publication covering digital inclusion, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and flexible deployment. Potential new capabilities related to prospective use cases are discussed qualitatively as well as new paradigms to address traffic growth, capacity needs, minimise complexity and provide alternatives to densification.

Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D, Vodafone and NGMN Board Member, says: “This important contribution reflects how evolution towards 6G needs to deliver customer led outcomes whilst maximising efficient use of resources and ensuring the practical deployment of software-driven networks.”

Anita Döhler, NGMN CEO, states: “As a global mobile operator driven organisation, reflecting the entire ecosystem in its membership, we are well positioned in submitting 6G Requirements and Design Considerations to SDOs and the industry. Our objective is to guide and support the mobile industry in achieving a global 6G standard and with already over 50 companies participating in this specific project today, we look forward to driving industry alignment around 6G architecture in the future.”

Following NGMN’s publications “6G Drivers and Vision” in 2021, “6G Use Cases and Analysis” in 2022, the latest publication “6G Requirements and Design Considerations” marks the next step towards a deeper understanding of 6G architecture.

Collaboration is key to driving the industry’s most important topics such as NGMN’s strategic pillars: Green Future Networks, Operating Disaggregated Networks, and 6G. NGMN therefore invites all parties across the entire value chain to join the Alliance in this important endeavour.

The publication can be downloaded from here.

Publication Green Future Networks: Telco Supply Chain Sustainability Cover

NGMN Identifies Best Practices for Telco Supply Chain Sustainability

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Frankfurt, Germany, January 17, 2023. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) today published ‘Green Future Networks: Telco Supply Chain Sustainability’ addressing the key issue of how operators can work with their supply chains to reduce carbon emissions. Reducing carbon emissions from the supply chain is of critical importance to operators’ roadmaps to net zero carbon.

“Cutting carbon emissions to tackle climate change is an issue that challenges all industries. The mobile industry is meeting this challenge head-on”, said Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology, Deutsche Telekom and NGMN Board Chairman. “Our work at NGMN is an important step in enabling operators and their suppliers to identify practical ways in which they can work together to reduce carbon emissions. Deutsche Telekom targets net-zero emissions at the latest by 2040. With more than 95%  emissions generated from our value chain, partnering with our suppliers is critical to meeting our net zero goals. To support the industry, we shared our best practice examples in this publication”, he added.

Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO and SVP Orange Innovation Networks, Orange and NGMN Board Member, added: “Climate change is the single biggest challenge facing global society today. At Orange, we are proud to have collaborated with the industry to create these impactful NGMN guidelines to help operators and their supply chain partners meet their sustainability objectives and reduce carbon emissions.”

“Green Future Networks is a core strategic priority of NGMN”, explained Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN. “Telco Supply Chain Sustainability is the first publication of several scheduled for 2023 and it is apt that it is covering the supply chain where collaboration between operators and their partners is so critical to both parties’ success in tackling climate change. NGMN provides the platform to enable the industry to work together on key topics such as sustainability, network disaggregation and 6G – all of which require extensive industry-wide collaboration to be truly successful.”

In this first publication of NGMN’s Green Future Networks Phase 2 in 2023, the key challenges mobile operators face in developing sustainable supply chains are outlined. A review of the emerging regulatory and standards environment is conducted. Approaches and best practices in developing sustainable supply chains are identified by relating the emerging business and regulatory environment to examples of the changes that operators and their supply chain partners may need to make, both at strategic and operational levels. Integrating sustainability goals into the operator’s core objectives is of key importance as well as selecting suppliers whose own sustainability strategies are aligned with these goals. Finally, a checklist based on the best practices in the industry is provided to support operators in developing a sustainable procurement strategy. Examples from across the industry are included that highlight that companies are already embracing many of the concepts identified in this publication.

The publication can be downloaded from here: https://www.ngmn.org/publications/green-future-networks-telco-supply-chain-sustainability.html

Collaboration is key to driving the industry’s most important topics such as NGMN’s strategic pillars: Green Future Networks, Operating Disaggregated Networks, and 6G. NGMN therefore invites all parties across the entire value chain to join the Alliance in this important endeavour.

Board-2022-2024

NGMN continues its successful path with Chairman Arash Ashouriha being re-elected for a second term

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Frankfurt, Germany, December 13, 2022. The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) announces its Board Chairman and Board Members for the term 2022 – 2024, starting November 23, 2022. All Board Members were newly confirmed and Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation of Deutsche Telekom, was unanimously elected to extend his Chairmanship for another term of two years. Under his direction, between 2020 and 2022, NGMN successfully performed a significant re-positioning and transformation executing its new strategy to focus on “Mastering the Route to Disaggregation with a spotlight on the E2E Operating Model”, “Green Future Networks” and “6G”, whilst continuing to support 5G’s full potential.

Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board, said: “I am honoured to be elected again as NGMN’s Board Chairman. Within the past two years, the challenges of our industry have further increased, we are facing very exciting times. In collaboration with NGMN’s membership and with my Board Member colleagues specifically, my goal is to continue unleashing synergies to further provide a distinct value in supporting the industry’s successful journey towards disaggregated networks, the reduction of carbon footprint by following an end-to-end approach and paving the way for 6G’s success. Our successes were only possible with the support of all NGMN Members and the entire Partnership. Going forward, their continuous active engagement, representing the whole value chain, is of utmost importance.”

Anita Döhler, CEO, NGMN Alliance, said:” I would like to thank Arash for his great leadership, dedication and guidance during the past two years and I look forward to continuing NGMN’s success-journey together. Whilst a lot has been achieved already, it is extremely important to continue our focus on the industry’s most important topics, delivering a clear and tangible value to the ecosystem and to end-users. I am confident, that we will continue to follow the successful path with Arash’s direction and with Deutsche Telekom as a strong Member Partner, fully backed by the commitment of the entire NGMN Board.”

Arash Ashouriha’s re-election acknowledges NGMN’s success in addressing the industry’s most important opportunities and challenges today and in the future. It is a strong commitment to further drive the execution of the alliance’s strategy for the benefit of the industry and end-users.

NGMN’s work of the past two years comprises of, among others, the publication of around 30 strong recommendations and impactful guidelines to the industry, with major highlights: the first MNO view on “6G Drivers & Vision”, followed by “6G Use Cases and Analysis”, the MNO view on “E2E Operating Model of Disaggregated Networks”, and very important sustainability guidelines, including “Network Energy Efficiency”, the “Eco-Design of Products” and “E2E Services Footprint Reduction”. NGMN will further continue its strategy to provide impactful guidance and blueprints to the industry and the entire value chain. NGMN’s well-known executive and boutique Industry Conference & Exhibition (IC&E) in September 2022 in Paris reflected the enormous significance of its strategic focus topics and the growing impact of the alliance with the industry’s renowned telco leaders exchanging their insights and visions on the future of mobile communications.

Further information and all publications of the NGMN Alliance can be found on their website at www.ngmn.org.

Note to Editors

NGMN Alliance Board for 2022-2024:

Arash Ashouriha (Chairman) (SVP Group Technology and Innovation, Deutsche Telekom)

Joachim Gross (Chief Network Architect, 1&1)

Wolfgang Fleischer (Head of Network Virtualization, A1 Group, Telekom Austria)

Stephen Howe (Chief Technology and Information Officer, Bell Canada)

Howard Watson (Group CTO, BT)

Yuhong Huang (General Manager China Mobile Research Institute, China Mobile)

Hey-Chyi Young (VP of Chunghwa Telecom Labs, Chunghwa Telecom)

Anita Döhler (Chief Executive Officer, NGMN Alliance)

Naoki Tani (Executive General Manager of R&D Innovation Division, NTT Docomo Inc.)

Laurent Leboucher (Group CTO and Senior Vice President Orange Innovation Networks, Orange)

Mark Chong (Group CTO, Singtel)

Takki Yu (Head of Access Network Development Team, SK Telecom)

Arvin L. Siena (Vice President & Head – Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, PLDT Inc. & Smart Communications)

Ulf Ewaldsson (SVP, Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile US)

Yogesh Malik (EVP and CTIO, Tele2)

Stefan Jäverbring (CTO and Head of Network, Telia Company)

Bernard Bureau (VP Network and Architecture Strategy, Chief Technology Office, TELUS)

Andrea Calvi (Head of Technology Evolution & Innovation, TIM)

Gediz Sezgin (Chief Network Technologies Officer, Turkcell)

Michael S. Irizarry, Ph.D. (Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Engineering and Information Technology, UScellular)

Luke Ibbetson (Head of Group R&D, Vodafone)

 

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NGMN Paves the Way for Disaggregated Networks’ Operating Models

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Frankfurt, Germany, October 18, 2022. Today, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance has launched its second publication on “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v2.0”, which provides a detailed breakdown on how disaggregation impacts an operator’s organisation and processes. The publication covers RAN, core and transport disaggregation and outlines how planning, deployment, service provision, optimisation and maintenance processes will be impacted. In addition, the publication highlights the impact on processes of cloudification and the need to move towards the use of greater network automation whilst embracing DevSecOps. The opportunities, challenges and the impact on network testing are also explained. Developed by the NGMN Alliance’s Partners – operators, vendors, system integrators, and research institutes – the new publication builds on “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v1.0” from October 2021, which outlined the opportunities and challenges of network disaggregation.

Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board, states: “The successful and cost-effective adoption of disaggregated network technologies, enabling an agile implementation of innovative technologies with improved capabilities to react fast on customer demand, requires new modi operandi. In NGMN, we specifically focus on the operating model of disaggregated networks. We at Deutsche Telekom are glad to lead this initiative, working with our co-leads, who represent other geo-locations, and with the entire value chain in NGMN. “

Arvin L. Siena, Vice President & Head – Technology Strategy and Transformation Office, PLDT & Smart Communications and NGMN Alliance Board Director, adds: “The telecommunications industry has embarked on an exciting journey. One that has started to disrupt the foundations of how networks are planned, designed, built, and operated, through their adoption of network disaggregation leading towards cloud-native strategies. As Co-Lead of the ODiN Project, we are excited to push this forward together with our NGMN Partners.”

Javan Erfanian, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Bell Canada and NGMN Alliance ODiN Project Co-Lead and Board Member, further explains:” Network disaggregation sets out the foundations for an agile and flexible future, setting the scene for operators to meet the needs of increasingly diverse use cases – across a wide range of industry sectors and with a wide range of requirements. We are very excited to work together with the operators and the entire value chain on industry solutions, enabling the industry to successfully embrace and bring to fruition network disaggregation and cloudification.”

Phase two of the NGMN Alliance ODiN Project demonstrates that, while the depth and extent of changes are indeed huge, there are broad concepts, initiatives and activities that aim to support and even accelerate the transition. From standardisation to alliances, from open proof-of-concept and integration labs to knowledge sharing and transfer, activities were collectively identified to support operators and the whole value chain in making disaggregation a success.

In the next step, the NGMN Alliance will work on more detailed guidance by outlining network disaggregation architectural options and related operating model blueprints, matched to specific deployment scenarios and operator needs. It is anticipated that “ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v3.0” will be released in 2023.

Download the ODiN – Operating Disaggregated Networks v2.0 publication here.

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NGMN’s Industry Conference & Exhibition from Sep 7 – 9 in Paris with Top Speakers and Exhibitors

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Frankfurt, Germany, August 24, 2022:

NGMN Alliance will hold its highly recognized global Industry Conference & Exhibition (IC&E) taking place every two years, on September 7-9, 2022, at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris. C-Level and other top management participants will share their perspectives on today’s and tomorrow’s opportunities and challenges and the future of mobile telecommunications.

The event features an eminent and outstanding line-up of speakers while offering unique networking opportunities with world’s top leaders from major operators, network vendors and academia. The IC&E agenda focuses on NGMN’s three strategic focus topics, Mastering the Route to Disaggregation, Green Future Networks and 6G – with a particular focus on Green Future Networks.

Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board, explains: “Our conference is known to be ‘the platform’ where key industry leaders and decision makers meet and exchange with eco-system partners. This year’s agenda, confirmed speakers and exhibitors speak for themselves, our audience can expect a valuable and exciting event.”

Laurent Leboucher, Group CTO & Senior Vice President at Orange Innovation Networks and NGMN Alliance Board Member, concludes: “Bringing the IC&E to Paris is an honour and with Orange being a major sponsor and exhibitor, I look forward to the event and many relevant discussions with industry peers.”

“We are happy and proud to present to our audience this notable speaker and exhibitor line-up at our signature event. Globally recognized top speakers from around the globe representing operators, vendors, system integrators and research institutions provide their insights and visions for the most pertinent subjects of our industry”, adds Anita Döhler, CEO of NGMN Alliance.

The IC&E 2022 starts on September 7 with a Grand Opening evening event including the opening of the exhibition. On September 8, the conference focuses on the two topics of “Mastering the Route to Disaggregation” and “The Road to 6G”. On September 9 the focus is with “Green Future Networks” including green tech innovation.

Individual presentations paired with panel discussions moderated by renown industry experts Camille Mendler, Gabriel Brown, Guy Daniels and Stéphane Téral address vital themes of the telecommunications industry:  How is the mobile industry mastering the route to disaggregation, with an analyst’s view and lessons learned from greenfield and brownfield operators, as well as relevant insights provided by vendors and system integrators. How to ensure 6G meets market and industry requirements? What are likely to be the key technology enablers offered by 6G? What do we learn from 5G and how will 5G evolve to 6G? How is the mobile industry managing sustainability challenges? And how is this achieved whilst deploying 5G and moving to 6G?

Alongside the conference, an exhibition showcases leading international industry and research partners. This year Autonom, Crossflow Energy, Eurecom, Fraunhofer, Huawei, InterDigital, Keysight, Kynetic Energy, Mowea, Nokia, Orange, and Rosenberger demonstrate state of the art concepts and solutions. This years’ IC&E sponsors include: Alium, Avanci, Bell, Deloitte, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, IBM, Juniper Networks, ng-voice, Orange, Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz, Sisvel, Spinner, TELUS and umlaut.

TelecomTV is the exclusive broadcasting partner of the NGMN Industry Conference & Exhibition 2022.

For further information, please visit: ice2022.ngmn.org

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Further information

Sep 7 – Grand Opening Night including the Opening of the Exhibition  

Michaël Trabbia, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Orange, will hold the keynote speech on the Grand Opening Night on September 7.

Day 1, Sep 8 – “Mastering the Route to Disaggregation”, “Cloudification” and “Road to 6G”.

NGMN Alliance CEO Anita Döhler will welcome all participants, followed by keynote speeches from Arash Ashouriha (Deutsche Telekom) and Laurent Leboucher (Orange). Ibrahim Gedeon (TELUS), Howard Watson (BT), Marisa Viveros (IBM), Vivek Gupta (Google Cloud) and Andrea Calvi (TIM) will discuss what the key success factors are to enable the route to cloud native implementations as well as its impact on network automation. After Stéphane Téral shared the analyst’s view, key operators in greenfield and brownfield situations as well as vendors will discuss how to address the opportunities and challenges of disaggregated networks and what is required to achieve successful launches and operations – featuring Joachim Groß (1&1), Haider Syed (Rakuten Symphony), David Bachmann (ng-voice), Petr Ledl (Deutsche Telekom), Carlos Fernandes (Deutsche Telekom) and Arvin Siena (PLDT & Smart Communications). In the afternoon, Aurelio Nocerino (Accenture), Pavan Kurapati (Juniper Networks) and Anne Stephan (Rohde & Schwarz) individually present their views and insights on how the mobile industry is Mastering the Route to Disaggregation and what is required to enable innovation, speed and agility in developing, deploying and operating new services. Verena Weber (OECD), Takehiro Nakamura (NTT DOCOMO), David Lister (Vodafone), Javan Erfanian (Bell Canada), Yuhong Huang (China Mobile), Takki Yu (SK Telecom), Peter Merz (Nokia), Wen Tong (Huawei), Christian Bauer (Trumpf) and Frank Fitzek (TU Dresden) share their views on what the 6G’s drivers are and how 6G can contribute to the needs of our globe by 2030.

Day 1 of the IC&E also accommodates the IPR Business Lunch on 5G Patent Pools. Laurie Fitzgerald (Avanci), Bill Geary (Alium), Thomas Rößler (Sisvel) and the NGMN IPR Chair Serge Raes (Orange) share their expert views, hosted by NGMN Legal Counsel Stefan Engel-Flechsig.

Camille Mendler, Chief Analyst at Omdia, Gabriel Brown, Principal Analyst at Heavy Reading, and Stéphane Téral, Chief Analyst at LightCounting Market Research, moderate the conference and the panels on the 8th of September.

Day 2, Sep 9 – “Green Future Networks” and “Green Tech Innovation”

After a welcome by NGMN Alliance CEO Anita Döhler, Steve Martineau (Senior Advisor to COP26) will hold a keynote speech. Saima Ansari (Deutsche Telekom), Hakan Ekmen (umlaut), Graziano Catucci (HPE), Philipp Deibert (Deloitte) and Jeroen Cox (KPN) will kick off the first session, highlighting topics such as roadmaps to carbon neutrality and implementation examples by MNOs and Vendors, best practice: deployments of energy efficiency standards, E2E service footprint measurement, requirements to metering, green networks KPIs and methodologies – the route to an industry standard and the eco-design of products. This will be followed by a special session, in which four innovative green start-ups present their solutions for the telecommunications industry featuring Sandra Stickel (Kynetic Energy), Robert Johnen (Mowea), Hugues Marceau (Autonom) and Nick Primavesi (Crossflow Energy). Jane Rygaard (Nokia), Ana Maria Galindo (Orange), Yogesh Malik (Tele2), Mats Pellbäck Scharp (Ericsson) and Philip Song (Huawei) will share their views on how the mobile industry manages its own sustainability challenges and how this is achieved whilst deploying 5G and moving towards 6G.

Guy Daniels, Director of Content at TelecomTV, moderates the panels and guides through day 2 of the conference.

6G Use Cases & Analysis

NGMN IDENTIFIES 6G USE CASE

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 22, 2022:

The identification of 6G use cases is key to predicting major trends in future usage scenarios and will help to steer the needs and requirements for future generational change. Therefore, operators, technology suppliers and academic advisors in NGMN joined forces and contributed their views on which 6G use cases they predict will emerge in the future decade. The result is published in NGMN’s “6G Use Cases and Analysis” White Paper released today.

These predictions will feed into the ITU-R IMT Vision for 2030 and beyond, specifying future connectivity requirements followed by the work of Standards Development Organizations.

A total of 50 use cases were identified, categorised into 4 classes, and mapped into 14 generic use cases. The four classes are:

Enhanced Human Communication – including use cases that have the potential to enrich human communications, such as immersive experience, telepresence & multi-modal interaction.

Enhanced Machine Communication – including use cases reflecting the growth in collaborative robotics, and autonomous machines, the requirement for sensing the surrounding environment and the need for robots to communicate among themselves and with humans.

Enabling Services – including use cases that require additional features, such as high accuracy location, mapping, environmental, or body sensing data.

Network Evolution – describing aspects related to the evolution of core technologies including AI as a service, energy efficiency, and delivering ubiquitous coverage.

High-level analyses and assessments of use cases were conducted at an early stage in several areas,­ including potential technology components, feasibility, and differentiation to 5G.

Societal needs, differentiated market demands, and operational necessities are key drivers to prioritise the use cases to guide the 6G system design. An important imperative in 6G drivers is environmental sustainability, both in terms of 6G eco-design as well as its enabling impact to reduce the environmental carbon footprint of industries and human activities. Aspects such as security, trust and privacy are also central in considering future technologies.

Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D, Vodafone and Member of the NGMN Board says: “Vodafone is optimistic about how technology innovation can enhance the future and improve people’s lives. Vodafone is delighted to be co-leading the NGMN 6G initiative and helping to define the role and purpose of 6G, together with our co-leads from other geographical regions and the broader NGMN community. We aim to build a digital society that enhances socio-economic progress, embraces everyone and does not come at the cost of our planet.”

Anita Döhler, NGMN CEO states: ”6G is one of our strategic focus topics. Our 6G project is a true global collaboration among operators, vendors and research organisations as well as external stakeholders. With our 6G Use Cases and Analysis, we continue our commitment to providing impactful guidance to the industry in developing 6G, building on our 6G Drivers and Vision. We invite interested industry players to join our endeavor for the benefit of the ecosystem at large.”

NGMN will further focus on these imperatives in future phases of its work on 6G, particularly with respect to demands and drivers. The Alliance expects new use cases to emerge, in support of digitisation and innovation beyond today’s imagination.

Following NGMN’s 6G Drivers and Vision publication in 2021, this publication of 6G Use Cases marks the next step towards NGMN’s work on 6G End-to-End requirements.

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NGMN CALLS FOR THE INDUSTRY TO SUPPORT UPLINK PERFORMANCE

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Frankfurt, Germany, February 16, 2022: Verticals’ use cases need sufficient uplink throughput or cell capacity and low enough latency, when 5G Time-Division Duplex (TDD) bands are used to successfully realize their industrial use cases. The uplink performance is key to fully unlock the value of 5G. Therefore, the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance calls to increase efforts to enhance the uplink performance in its new White Paper “5G TDD UPLINK”. The Alliance formulates specific recommendations to regulators and other mobile industry stakeholders to support the ecosystem with adequate solutions. Also, various technical possibilities are presented – some of them are related to the management of interference, when differing frame structures are used to support the industries’ requirements.

Wolfgang Fleischer, Head of Network Innovation Technology & Business Evolution, A1 Group, NGMN Board Member and project lead, says: “Some of the applications for 5G technology, particularly in industrial settings, have greater requirements on the uplink – both in terms of capacity and shorter latency. This NGMN Initiative puts these into the spotlight and presents features to enable the networks to accommodate the requirements for such uplink dependent use cases.”

NGMN’s recommendations to better support the uplink throughput and latency requirements of Verticals include:

  • To use different TDD configurations
  • To select frame structure to vary uplink/downlink throughput
  • To carefully select more balanced or uplink oriented TDD frame structures in a local network
  • To consider the adoption of other uplink enhancing features such as SU-MIMO
  • To enhance 3GPP specification to fulfil requirements with respect to UL throughput, latency, and support for the co-existence of different frame structures by enhancements
  • To reserve spectrum for certain specific usages

The NGMN project will also reach out to chipset makers, regulators, Standard Developing Organisations and other involved parties to ensure that these NGMN recommendations are considered.-ends-

Further information and NGMN recommendations:

  1. A number of verticals’ use cases require significantly higher uplink throughput and lower latency than that required by typical Mobile Broadband consumer mobile users. There are solutions available to address this uplink problem (throughput and latency). Using different TDD configurations, as one of the solutions, requires coordination between operators in order to minimize possible interference and support by regulators to achieve sufficient operational flexibility to deliver customer use cases with higher uplink requirements.
  2. Frame structure selection is an effective way of varying uplink/downlink throughput. Additional balanced or uplink oriented frame structures should be made available and interoperable by ecosystem partners (chipset, user equipment and infrastructure providers). NGMN has identified specific slot formats, DDSUU (balanced) and DSUUU (uplink oriented), as candidates for specific frequency ranges (FR1 and FR2). Ecosystem partners should also support operators in making available and interoperable other possible alternative solutions identified in this White Paper to address this uplink problem.
  3. Careful selection of more balanced or uplink oriented TDD frame structures in a local network is recommended to limit the interference impact between local and wide-area public networks. However, if isolation between networks is sufficient (through physical separation, indoor with sufficient wall penetration loss, guard bands, etc.), the selection and use of TDD frame structures are less constrained and may be beneficial for services with a more balanced or uplink oriented traffic profile.
  4. In scenarios where sufficient isolation between networks is not achievable, e.g. local outdoor networks in the same or adjacent spectrum, using different TDD frame structures will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. In such cases, adoption of other uplink enhancing features such as SU-MIMO (Single-User Multiple Input Multiple Output) and MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output) should be considered.
  5. Future 3GPP specification enhancements, including 5G advanced and 6G, should ensure the requirements of verticals’ use cases are fulfilled with respect to UL throughput, latency, and support for the co-existence of different frame structures.
  6. Spectrum, particularly sub 6 GHz, is a critical and limited resource for mobile communications. Regulators need to carefully consider how it is assigned to ensure it can be used effectively and efficiently. Spectrum fragmentation due to reservation for certain specific usages could undermine the assignments of sufficiently large contiguous frequency blocks for 5G networks, potentially leading to under-utilization and spectrum inefficiency.
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NGMN Calls for Metering Solutions to Reach Net-Zero Emission Targets

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Frankfurt, Germany, January 25, 2022: The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) today publishes its fourth Green Future Networks White Paper: “Metering for Sustainable Networks”. With this publication, the Alliance calls for metering solutions as an important step for operators to reach net-zero emission targets.

For operators, the reduction of power consumption has been identified as an essential aspect to achieve net-zero emission targets by 2050 or before and to reduce their operational expenses as well. An accurate metering system is a prerequisite to make sure that energy consumption can be properly monitored, measured, and optimised. The NGMN White Paper outlines the metering goals in different parts of mobile networks and the advantages that can be realised with the implementation of metering solutions.

With much of the energy being consumed in the radio networks, particularly base stations, metering solutions have the biggest immediate impact in radio networks. The growing number of sites is another aspect that should not be neglected. The new White Paper mainly focuses on base station equipment and their technical sites.

All insights and recommendations given in this White Paper are also applicable to other parts of the mobile network – including core networks, data centres, and backhaul.

Laurent Leboucher, SVP Orange Innovation Networks, Orange and Member of the NGMN Board says: “We, like NGMN, in particular ask equipment manufacturers to share architectures and communication protocols to improve the measurements of the energy consumption in base stations, being the most energy consuming part of mobile networks. Our request also applies to all other equipment in the network. Accurate metering solutions are absolutely essential to operators – to make progress on energy efficiency, measuring is essential. This will contribute to our net-zero targets and also to reducing networks operational expenses.”

The proposed recommendations for metering solutions assume a unified architecture of a metering system and data collection at site level, for application by operators, thus enabling deployment with low effort. This White Paper covers different use cases and operating models, different topologies of sites including sites owned by one operator, site sharing between different operators, tower companies and RAN sharing scenarios as well.

Another NGMN recommendation is to collaborate with standard developing organisations (SDOs), to create a uniform and more sustainable metering solution for mobile networks by standardising parameters to be measured, data collection methods, interfaces, and communication protocols. Furthermore, it is important to establish an interface between network operators and network equipment suppliers, including manufacturers and vendors.

With these requirements to the industry, NGMN has achieved another milestone in its Green Future Networks Project. This White Paper rounds off Phase 1 while the Alliance has started working on Phase 2 with further publications on various topics to follow in 2022.

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NGMN Defines Industry Standard for a “Global Green Networks Benchmark”

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Frankfurt, Germany, January 18, 2022: The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN Alliance) today announces the establishment of methodologies and KPIs for a Global Green Networks Benchmark. The Alliance’s new initiative is part of its Green Future Networks Programme and is set for generating a global standard for the industry. While current mobile network benchmarks mostly concentrate on comparing service quality and user experience, the new Global Green Networks Benchmark will place the focus on green network operations.

Arash Ashouriha, SVP Group Technology Innovation, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman of the NGMN Board states: ”Implementing concrete actions to mitigate climate action is a key priority for our industry. At Deutsche Telekom, our goal is to make sure that everyone can #takepart and connect over a green network. We are committed to ambitious net zero targets and are continuously optimizing our network to ensure the best quality for our customers while striving to systematically reduce the energy consumption. The Global Green Networks Benchmark from NGMN will certainly help the entire telco industry by providing transparency regarding the operator’s sustainability. In addition, it offers operators a unique opportunity to prove their sustainability credentials towards their customers and be recognized for the positive environmental and societal impact.”

Anita Döhler, CEO at NGMN, emphasizes: “There is a clear need for a Global Green Networks Benchmark. Being recognized for the operation of Green Networks will encourage Mobile Network Operators to engage even more in exploring innovative methods and solutions to implement their networks in an energy efficient manner and to increase the focus on reducing the E2E services’ environmental footprint, for instance, through improved eco-design of products and the implementation of new business models fostering a circular economy. Such efforts will also stimulate supplier innovation.”

The general objectives of this NGMN initiative are:

  • to establish globally applicable KPIs and methodologies,
  • to define a global evaluation methodology, and
  • to define the data sources for the assessment and how such data are obtained

In the first step, the benchmark will focus on high level sustainability indicators, followed by more detailed assessments at subsequent stages.

The networks’ traffic volume is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years and keeping the energy curve flat will be a challenge for the industry. In addition, climate change is becoming one of the major concerns from the end-user perspective resulting in more and more end-users looking for sustainable services from their network providers. Although many operators have committed to net-zero targets, there is a high potential in improving network energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which NGMN is addressing with all its Green Future Networks’ activities.

NGMN invites interested industry players to join this new endeavor for the benefit of the global ecosystem.

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NGMN Alliance Continues to Grow with New Partners Joining the Alliance

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Frankfurt, Germany, December 15, 2021: The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN Alliance), today announces that Bharti Airtel, Comba Telecom, Google, IBM and Telia have joined the Alliance in 2021. With a new positioning earlier this year, the NGMN Alliance put the focus on the most burning topics of mobile telecommunications today and in the future – thus addressing and embracing the entire industry: Mastering the Route to Disaggregation/Operating Disaggregated Networks, Green Future Networks, 6G as well as the continuous support of 5G’s full implementation.

“We very much look forward to a mutually inspiring and beneficial collaboration with Bharti Airtel, Comba Telecom, Google, IBM and Telia and welcome them to our Partnership. Winning these new Partners clearly indicates that our new strategy pays off. Our focus topics address the mobile telecommunications industry’s biggest opportunities and challenges today and in the future, and we have a clear mission to create impact for the benefit of the entire ecosystem”, says Anita Doehler, CEO, NGMN Alliance.

“We are delighted to join the NGMN Alliance and look forward to collaborating with other members to build a roadmap for networks of the future.” says Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

Steve Canepa, Managing Director, Global Communications Sector, IBM, adds: “We firmly believe in the importance of collaboration to accelerate change and innovation – especially in complex topics such as sustainable next generation networks. Joining the NGMN Alliance enables IBM to collaborate with industry stakeholders by leveraging hybrid cloud, AI and automation technologies to drive a sustainable future driven by compute and connectivity.”

With Bharti Airtel, Comba Telecom, Google, IBM and Telia joining the Alliance, NGMN Alliance continues to grow. Today, the operator driven Alliance counts 24 operators among its Partnership, including 79 companies in total, with further growth in progress for 2022.

The NGMN Alliance will be bringing together its Partners and other industry experts at its bi-annual Industry Conference & Exhibition in Paris, September 7-9, 2022. Further details will be announced shortly.