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The IEEE FN Entrepreneurs’ Mentorship program is a new global program sponsored by Future Networks seeks to support the upcoming, proof-of concept, first time entrepreneurs, early-stage and growth stage technological entrepreneurs (hereinafter referred as ‘technological entrepreneurs’, or ‘Mentees’) from within and/or outside IEEE community in creating technology-driven business that impact humanity. IEEE FN Entrepreneurs’ Mentorship program connects technological entrepreneurs with suitable mentors to accelerate their business, increase their growth metrics, achieve greater impact and prepare them for later stage investors.

IEEE FN Entrepreneurs’ Mentorship program aims to provide technical skills and mentorship support along with a variety of other critical support such as financial, business, marketing, education and others to maximize their potential, accelerate the growth of their organization, deliver high-impact value, stimulate long-term economic growth and produce environmental and social benefits.

IEEE FNE Mentorship program compliments and strengthens IEEE Programs and Awards such as IEEE Connecting the Unconnected (CTU), Standards Association (SA), IEEE Entrepreneurship (ENT), Women in Engineering (WIE), Empower Billions, Internet for All (I4A), IEEE Micro Mentoring Experience Program, etc. to foster technology, innovation and proliferate technology-driven businesses.

The IEEE FNE Mentorship program enables ‘technological entrepreneurs’ to access subject experts, able to build successful business models, networking with investors, creating communication plans, scalability strategies, facilitating in creating pitch decks and fruitful negotiations, technical guidance and insights, design thinking processes, marketing assets and knowledge. IEEE FN Entrepreneurs’ Mentorship program also facilitates technological entrepreneurs to access the IEEE network, partners and standard associations and allows them to participate in global events and networking opportunities.

In a nutshell, IEEE FNE Mentorship program aims to support entrepreneurs in their ‘idea to market’ journey and create a pathway for ‘technological entrepreneurs’ in acquiring seed funding or next investment. The IEEE FN Entrepreneurs' Mentorship program ensures that technological entrepreneurs enter the market ready with product/solution aligning with the IEEE core purpose of advancing technology for humanity.

The IEEE FN Entrepreneurs' Mentorship program is a 1000-days of nurturing, mentorship and pre-acceleration program for technological entrepreneurs, enabling them to acquire various skills for the growth of their businesses.  The IEEE FN Entrepreneurs' Mentorship program will cover India and East Africa region.

Mission, Vision and Objectives

 Mission

Goal of the IEEE FN Entrepreneurs' Mentorship is to prepare, educate and invest in technological entrepreneurs to create compelling technological solutions that have the ability to bring a positive change in the life of masses.

 Vision

IEEE FN Entrepreneurs' Mentorship program thrives to nurture, invest and accelerate impactful technological businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs that are addressing the global and local challenges in the field of engineering and has potential to be profitable.

 Objective(s)

1. Providing 1000 days of mentorship and continuous learning space for ‘technological entrepreneurs’ to translate their vision into execution
2. Enabling technological entrepreneurs to develop new standards in relation to product/solutions
3. Providing technical guidance and mentorship along with other critical support and resources required accelerating their business
4. Provide access to technical standards, publications and journals for continuous learning
5. Providing a networking platform to meet with potential investors, partners, technical societies, IEEE members and communities
6. Recognizing technological startups and entrepreneurs who have made significant impact on the engineering-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem
7. Extend its support to technological entrepreneurs that can deliver social and financial returns to transform the lives of low-income people everywhere.

Program Categories

The IEEE FNE Mentorship program invites technological entrepreneurs to receive the mentorship in three categories:

Technology Acceptance: Technological entrepreneurs have innovative technology solution/product but facing issues in hardware development, its design, cost and upscaling of their product, understanding the standards, IPR and regulatory compliances related to their solution/product, R&D and innovation

Business Models: Technological entrepreneurs facing challenges in upscaling their business, supply chain management, manufacturing challenges, market trends and opportunities, distribution and sales, cost-effectiveness, risks and mitigation planning, identifying suitable communication strategies, developing business plans and others.

Community Enablement: Technological entrepreneurs have solution/product that have potential to impact socially but are not able to scale-up, understand user-experience and design, require support for partnerships and collaboration, retaining skilled human resources and reaching out to wider customer, distribution and sales and others.

Program Contacts

This program is being managed by a Working Group that is part of the IEEE Future Networks Education Committee.

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6G and NTN: Challenges and Solutions Contest

Winners have been anounced - see their 20 December presentation on-demand

20 December webinar agenda

• Welcome and introduction - Giovanni Giambene (INGR Satellite WG co-chair) & Craig Polk (IEEE Future Networks Program Manager)
• 1st place winner presentation - Ruibo Wang, "Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Routing in LEO Satellite Constellations Under Stochastic Geometry Framework"
• 2nd place winner presentation - Claudia Carballo Gonzalez, "Terrestrial-Airborne Cooperation for Unicast/Multicast Service Delivery over 6G O-RAN Framework"
• 3rd place winner presentation (1 of 2 3rd prize winners) - Oscar Martinez, "Distributed Feeder Link Approach for 6G Multi-Shell Mega-Constellations"
• 3rd place winner presentation (2 of 2 3rd prize winners) - Abdullah Abu Zaid, "NTNs for Urban Air Mobility Coverage: A Novel Probability of Line-of-Sight Model"

Contest is open to residents of the United States of America and other countries, where permitted by local law, who are the age from twenty (20) to thirty-five (35).

The first author of each submitted paper should be a full-time undergraduate/graduate student at the time of submission, a Ph.D. student, or have received his/her Ph.D. in 2021, 2022, or 2023.

Entry Period:  October 13, 2023 to November 10, 2023, at time 23:59 PST (firm) - CLOSED

How To Enter: Submissions will be collected though EDAS - https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=31605

The applicant has to submit an innovative idea in the field of 6G Satellite Systems and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) in the form of a short paper according to the IEEE Conference template.

The required paper length is up to 5 pages, double column (Times New Roman, 12-pt font size, and 20-pica column width), including references, tables, and figures of results. The submitted manuscript should not exceed 5000 words (including title, authors' names/info, abstract, body (introduction to conclusion), figures, tables, captions, footnotes, acknowledgments, and references).

The paper should cover one or more of the following topics:

• Satellite 6G and NTN architectures (including functional splits and relation with Open-RAN)
• Satellite IoT and multi-layer NTN architectures
• Optical wireless communications, including inter-satellite links
• Routing in 3D multi-orbit NTN systems
• AI for optimization
• Edge computing
• Security via satellite
• Quantum communications via satellite
• Standardization and regulation activity (3GPP, ETSI, IEEE, CCSDS, ITU, WRC).
• Satellite signal processing, waveform design, and link-layer optimization
• PHY layer co-existence and interference handling in NTN

There is a limit of max one paper submission (entry) per person.

Prize: The top three (3) submissions will receive a prize. Prize amounts will be:

• $500 First Prize 
• $300 Second Prize
• $200 Third Prize

The top three prize winners will be invited to present their paper on an IEEE Future Networks webinar during December 2023. They will also be invited to submit their paper to the IEEE Future Networks Tech Focus publication. 

Official rules

6GNTN23 TPC

Joan Bas, CTTC, Spain

Petros Bithas, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Franco Davoli, University of Genoa, Italy

Tomaso de Cola, DLR, Germany

Marco Giordani, University of Padova, Italy

Wael Jaafar, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Montreal, Canada

Andreas Knopp, Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany

Gabriele Oligeri, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar

Craig Polk, IEEE, US

Paresh Saxena, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, India

Daniele Tarchi, University of Bologna, Italy

Liang Zhao, Shenyang Aerospace University, China

University Ambassadors

CNIT - National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications https://www.cnit.it/en/ Viale G.P. Usberti, 181/A Pal.3 - 43124 Parma (PR), Italy

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Join the IEEE Future Networks Technical Community

Are you interested in:

• Impacting industry development of 5G and beyond through the technology roadmap
• Investing in your career through educational offerings
• Networking and learning from experts at the many workshops and conferences
• Discovering and providing feedback on next generation networking standards and more!

As an IEEE Future participants, you will have exclusive access to valuable resources, including:

• INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) is a comprehensive technology roadmap that predicts the evolution of network technology over a ten-year horizon. The goal of INGR is to identify the technical needs, challenges, and potential solutions todevelop and deploy next generation networks.
• Educational offerings including webinars and eLearning courses can help expand your knowledge on a broad selection of topics regarding 5G and beyond.
• Conferences and events, including the flagship IEEE Future Networks World Forum (FNWF) [formally known as the the 5G World Forum] Connecting the Unconnected Summit (CTUS), and First Responders and Tacticle Networks (FRTN) are offered globally throughout the year.
• On-demand videos of subject matter experts keep your knowledge in this dynamic environment up to date.
• IEEE Future Networks Tech Focus, an online e-publication, provides readers practical and timely technical information and forward-looking commentary on technology,developments, and deployments of current and future generations of networkingaround the world.

Looking to collaborate on the development and deployment of 5G and future connectivity, services, and applications? Then look no further | JOIN NOW!

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The Testbed Working Group (WG) helps collaborate with existing 5G testbeds to make those available to industry & academia to ease deployment of 5G and accelerate development of next-generation networks (e.g., 6G). Collaboration with the vendor and research communities will result in expansion upon existing testbeds towards federated development of testbeds for next-generation networks. The working group has established stronger relationships with IEEE & ITU’s standardization study group.

In addition to informing the community on the capabilities and usage modalities of existing testbeds, the WG also aims to solicit contributions and promote discussion on co-development and co-deployment of future experimental platforms for 5G and beyond.

Considering recent developments around the world, the WG has identified priorities on next-generation networks’ testbed requirements. End-use devices for both human and machine users are anticipated to see dramatic changes with emergence of next-generation wireless networks. In addition to the previous requirements, the WG has highlighted requirements and a roadmap for end-use (user equipment) hardware and compatible software as well as candidate spectrum bands for future networks.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Testbed INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The Standardization Building Blocks Working Group (SBB WG) reviews the current landscape of relevant to future networks SDOs and industry alliances, open-source organizations and their relations with SDOs. Challenges of cross-SDO collaborations in selected areas are also addressed. The chapter describes the global challenges and the IEEE approach to standardization of emerging technologies leveraging the IEEE Future Directions initiatives, and the IEEE Standards Activities ecosystem compatible with engagement of industrial and academic researchers in standards development.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Standardization Building Blocks INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The Satellite Working Group is now focused on satellite 6G. The chapter contains an enriched description of use cases combining direct satellite access and satellite backhaul, satellite IoT, mmWave for satellite networks, network management aspects, QoS/QoE, security, and recent standardization activities by 3GPP, ETSI, ITU, and IEEE. Satellite 6G is expected to provide KPIs and QoS at an unprecedented level for Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs). This chapter describes future technological challenges and solutions to achieve such ambitious goals.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Satellite INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The Optics Working Group is structured to create the space for key stakeholders to discuss the optical technologies being developed to meet the needs and goals of future networks—identifying and bringing focus to roadblocks, challenges, and opportunities. In 2022, the Optics WG identifies eight optical networking areas:

• Optical Xhaul (front/mid/backhaul) networks.
• High-speed optical access networks.
• Co-packaged optics / data center networks.
• Machine learning in optical networks.
• In-building optical networks.
• Optical wireless technologies for space communications using satellites or high-flying platforms.
• Optical fibers and spatial division multiplexed networks.
• Quantum communications.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Optics INGR Chapter 

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The mmWave and Signal Processing (MMW-SP) Working Group (WG) examines improvements in current millimeter-wave architectures, hardware capabilities and signal-processing techniques to enable 5G systems to achieve the 3GPP Release 17 requirements for massive mobile broadband (eMBB), and for Release 16 requirements for ultra-reliable low-latency communication and massive machine-to-machine use cases. 3GPP Release 17 was scheduled to be frozen by Q1 2022. The WG will translate the requirements for these drivers and describe technical challenges that should be addressed to support the growth of 5G applications within the 3-, 5-, and 10-year timeframes.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Millimeter Wave and Signal Processing INGR Chapter 

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The Edge Services and Automation Working Group also recognizes several key ingredients to fuel the momentum for years to come. These include rapid and significant AI/ML success in automation operation efficacy, adaptive, predictive and cognitive security, resource virtualization in massive scale, distributed scalable microservices with orchestration, highly secured management plane for infrastructure/domain slicing and customization, along with the reliability and availability, and a fabric with ultra-high bandwidth through 5G and other terrestrial and non-terrestrial wireless networks.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Edge Services and Automation INGR Chapter 

 

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The Connecting the Unconnected (CTU) Working Group (WG) highlights the need to develop unique requirements in 5G and 5GB networks in the standardization process, the development of use cases, and affordable solutions. It is the goal of the CTU WG to create an open platform where experts can bring their ideas and solutions and collaborate to create large global projects and influence network service providers, manufacturers and governments.

Connecting the Unconnected or under-connected (CTU) is the holy grail of transforming the lives of over 3 billion people around the globe with wireless Internet who are yet to experience its value in multiple ways. If this could be accomplished, its impact on the society would be enormous.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Connecting the Unconnected INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) working group (WG) provides roadmap based on research and industry advancement to deliver the AI/ML vision for the networks of the future. We focus on:

• AI & ML as they relate to networking and communications
• Architectures & frameworks that support AI/ML workloads for different domains
• Anticipating AI/ML challenges and developments over multi-year horizons

From time to time, we also collaborate with other working groups, other IEEE organizations, standards developing organizations (SDOs), other academic and industry associations and partners to advance common goals.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) - 2024 Edition (work in progress)

• Call for Contributions (PDF)
• Write This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for any inquiry

Calendar: Up-Coming Activities & Recent Events

• AI/ML WG's public calendar
• (Recurring) 1st Thursday of every month @ 6 PM Eastern Time (ET) -- working group regular meeting
• (Recurring) 3rd Thursday of every month @ 12:00 UTC -- working group regular meeting
• 2024 April 18 @ 12:00 UTC -- Special Presentation on "Three Stories on Learning and Intelligence over Weak Communication Links" by Dr. Petar Ppovski (Aalborg University, Denmark) (slides) (recording)
• 2024 April 4 @ 6 PM ET -- Presentation on "5G/6G Innovation Testbed" by IEEE's Brad Kloza and Naresh Babu.  (slides)(recording)
• (Recurring) Every Thursday in March 2024 @ 5 PM ET -- joint meeting with MIMO, SysOpt WGs 
• 2024 March 21 @ 12:00 UTC -- Special Presentation on "Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)-Native Wireless Systems with Common Sense: A Journey to 6G and Beyond" by Prof. Walid Saad (Virginia Tech., USA) (video)
• 2024 March 7 @ 6 PM ET -- Special Presentation on "Large Multi-Modal Models (LMMs) as Universal Foundation Models for AI-Native Wireless Systems" by Dr. Christo K. Thomas (Virginia Tech., USA) (slides) (video)
• 2024 Feb. 15 @ 12:00 UTC -- Special Presentation on "A Comprehensive Overview of Optimization Techniques for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs)" by Dr. Hao Zhou (McGill University, Canada) (slides)
• 2024 Jan. 18 @ 12:00 UTC -- Special Presentation on "Bridging the Spectrum Divide: ORAN and Spectrum Sharing" by Dr. Sneihil Gopal (NIST, Georgetown University, USA)

Contact Information

Interested in joining the AI/ML working group, writing for the AI/ML Chapter of the INGR, or speaking/presenting at an AI/ML working group event?
Write the co-chairs at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for any inquiry

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The Systems Optimization WG has been formed to explore various approaches to manage complexity of future systems with non-traditional design and operational methodologies. One of the first uses of self-optimizing or self-governing systems came about in cellular radio systems, with the SOC capabilities by NGMN and 3GPP for optimization of resources across heterogenous access networks. These systems, however are based on static policies and are limited in functional scope that addresses 3GPP RAT only. The Systems Optimization WG is exploring use of emergence to address full-stack self-organizing systems, i.e., multi-layer and multi-domain organization and optimization of multiple stacks comprising of heterogeneous radio resources (e.g., 3GPP and non 3GPP RAT), fixed access and transport resources (e.g., optical wavelengths), and compute and store infrastructure resources contributed by disparate service providers.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Systems Optimization INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The digital transformation brought by 5G is redefining current models of end-to-end connectivity and service reliability to include security-by-design principles necessary to enable 5G to achieve its promise. 5G trustworthiness highlights the importance of embedding security capabilities from the very beginning while the 5G architecture is being defined and standardized. Security requirements need to overlay and permeate through the different layers of the 5G systems (physical, network, and application) as well as different parts of an E2E 5G architecture including a risk management framework that takes into account the evolving security threats landscape.

5G exemplifies a use-case of heterogeneous access and computer networking convergence, where 5G fundamental building blocks include components such as Software Defined Networks (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and the edge cloud. This convergence extends many of the security challenges and opportunities applicable to SDN/NFV and edge cloud to 5G networks. Thus, 5G security needs to consider additional security requirements (compared to previous generations) such as SDN controller security, hypervisor security, orchestrator security, cloud security, edge security, etc. At the same time, security opportunities provided by 5G networks, should be considered where 5G can harness the architecture flexibility, programmability and complexity to improve its resilience and reliability.

The IEEE FNTC security WG’s roadmap framework follows a taxonomic structure, differentiating the 5G functional pillars and corresponding cybersecurity risks. At the infrastructure level the scope of the working group includes, Virtualization/Softwarization Security; Optimization / Orchestration Security; SDN Security; Network Slicing Security; Edge Security. Third party security includes supply chain security; open source and API security. Data security, privacy, security monitoring and analytics, proactive security, and digital forensics are also part of the scope for the working group. As part of cross collaboration, the security working group will also look into the security issues associated with other roadmap working groups within the IEEE Future Network Initiative.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Security and Privacy INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The use of a large number of antenna elements, known as Massive MIMO, is seen as a key enabling technology in the 5G and Beyond wireless ecosystem. The intelligent use of the multitude of antenna elements unleashes unprecedented flexibility and control of the physical channel of the wireless medium. Through Massive MIMO and other techniques, it is envisioned the 5G and Beyond wireless system will be able to support high throughput, high reliability (low bit-error-rate (BER)), high energy efficiency, low latency, and an Internet-scale number of connected devices. Massive MIMO and related technologies will be deployed in the mid-band (sub 6 GHz) for coverage, all the way to mmWave bands to support large channel bandwidths. It is envisioned Massive MIMO will be deployed in different environments: FDD, TDD, indoor/outdoor, small cell, macro cell, and other heterogeneous network (HetNet) configurations.

The scope of the Massive MIMO Working Group includes the following topics:

• Framework for large number of active users with massive connectivity.
• Framework for high spectral efficiency and energy efficiency with high user density and emerging applications having the strong need of QoS guarantees.
• Big Data Management.
• Cost-effective, reliable, and scalable implementation for Massive MIMO.
• Machine-type communications and low complexity transceiver design.
• PHY design for mmWave massive MIMO systems.
• Analog and digital hybrid precoding design
• Secure communications for massive MIMO systems
• The integrating of machine learning into massive MIMO systems.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Massive MIMO INGR Chapter 

Latest Event Activities

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The Energy Efficiency (EE) Working Group (WG) is committed to the education of energy-related issues/concerns/opportunities across all industry stakeholders and associated, extended ecosystems.  This vision is accomplished via inclusion in the IEEE Future Networks (FN) International Network Generations Roadmap (INGR) and the critical interactions with the many cross-functional stakeholder areas that are all inexorably dependent on the intricacies of energy architecture, distribution, and utilization.

Ideally, all industry stakeholders will come to realize the importance of a maniacal focus on optimizing energy efficiency/utilization at every level (i.e. – from component to system to network) as a critical area as early in the development/deployment/standardization processes as possible to maximize positive results when deployed at all scales (i.e. – from edge or small cell to the full network and utility levels).  Whether the incentives come from technical, business, and/or sustainable motivations, the concepts and associated, critical dependencies of the Power Value Chain (PVC) and the 5G Energy Gap must be internalized and applied appropriately.  A roadmap format is an ideal way to accomplish the vision as it provides awareness, guidance, and tiered approach for near- (~3 years), mid- (~5 years), and long-term (~10+ years) action.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Energy Efficiency INGR Chapter 

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The Applications and Services Working Group (WG) is focused on a sustainable interconnected ecosystem of ecosystems framework and roadmap development to identify evolving applications and services, common needs, challenges to achieving those needs, and potential solutions to those challenges. This structured, flexible, adaptable, and scalable approach extends across end-to-end ecosystems, and caters to different stages of priorities, resources, and technologies.

Specific ecosystem frameworks include the continuum of care (health care), recovery continuum (public safety), intermodal / multimodal transportation, supply chain management frameworks for electric and water utilities, food supply chain (agriculture), education, etc. They span geographical, political, and cultural boundaries across urban and non-urban areas, but typically converge in complex and dynamic urban environments as in the case of smart cities.

Severe stress or inefficiencies on one ecosystem, e.g. pandemics (health care), disasters (public safety), etc may negatively impact adjacent ecosystems. Alignments within and among ecosystems is essential. The WG also addresses inter ecosystem touchpoints, key performance indicators (KPI), and the need for technology standards development. Fixed and mobile future network functions for access, service delivery, network operations, and network interoperability may require communications capabilities that include a combination of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and network operations enhancements.

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Applications and Services INGR Chapter 

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The Deployment Working Group serves as a conduit for municipal stakeholders to communicate their goals and concerns to the wireless industry vendors who are specifying and designing future network products, equipment, and systems.  It is hoped that by doing this, the products the industry ultimately produce will have a better chance of making it through local government and municipal agency review, permitting, and appeal processes.  

Topics covered by the Deployment Working Group Roadmap are:

• Local government factors and perspectives affecting deployment.
• Regulatory factors affecting deployment.
• Public/Community factors and perspectives affecting deployment.
• Technology issues affecting deployment.

Wireless communication facility deployments occur primarily on three general property categories; privately-owned, publicly-owned, or tribal.  Some types of property such as transit stations, water towers, etc. will fall into one of the three categories depending on local variance; e.g. a utility poles might be owned by a government entity, a private utility, a tribal government, or by a joint powers authority.

In most cases the factors and perspectives affecting deployment are common to all wireless technologies, and in those cases we make no distinction between 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, etc.  In some cases there are differences between wireless technologies that affect deployment, and these are noted as such.

Regulation and/or legislation affect the deployment of wireless technologies.  As is often the case, the tensions over local control with state/regional, national, tribal, or international interests are dynamic and evolving.  For this roadmap, we note and discuss the effects of regulation and legislation, but the Deployment Roadmap deliberately avoids making policy recommendations. 

In most cases, the factors and perspectives affecting deployment are common to all wireless technologies, and in those cases we make no distinction between 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, etc. In some cases there are differences between wireless technologies that affect deployment, and these are noted as such. Ensuring that public perceptions about the impact of wireless technologies on human health are based on good science and medical evidence. In that regard, we rely heavily on the work from IEEE-SA [C95.1 standard | https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/C95.1/4940/] (via the SASB/SCC39 - SCC39 - International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety), expert reviews from the IEEE [International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety | https://www.ices-emfsafety.org/publications/expert-reviews/], and the IEEE [Committee on Man and Radiation | https://ewh.ieee.org/soc/embs/comar/] (via the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society).

INGR (International Network Generations Roadmap) Publication - Latest Edition

Read the latest edition of the Deployment INGR Chapter 

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IEEE 2020 3rd 5G World Forum, 10 September - 10 October, Virtual

In a keynote address presented to the 2020 IEEE 5G World Forum plenary session, Gerhard Fettweis from Technische Universität Dresdan discusses the next generation of communications technology beyond 5G and how advancements like AI and softwarization will impact its development.

For more information on the conference, visit the 5G World Forum website or the IEEE Future Networks Initiative website.

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IEEE Future Networks Podcasts with the Experts
An IEEE Future Directions Digital Studios Production 

A Sustainable Ecosystem Framework for 5G Applications & Services

Applications and services are the exciting place where technology advances and envisioned use cases
merge to reveal real world practices and impact. 5G and future networks have galvanized the imagination around a broad landscape of known and possible applications and services like no earlier network generation. But, what was missing was a way to organize and contextualize a sustainable infrastructure that can underlie applications and services across myriad industries. This podcast imparts a structured, flexible, adaptable, and scalable methodology for applications and services that extends end-to-end across ecosystems in urban and non-urban areas. This methodology caters to different levels of local priorities, resources, and technologies.

What is the benefit of this approach to industries, citizens, society? This methodology caters to different levels of local priorities, resources, and technologies. Communities may use the interconnected ecosystem of ecosystems framework to traverse across adjacent ecosystems to respond to planned or unplanned events.

This work is underway in the Applications & Services Working Group of the International Network Generations Roadmap.

View the International Network Generations Roadmap page with Executive Summary, and options for viewing the Applications & Services chapter.

Subject Matter Experts

Narendra Mangra
Co-chair, International Network Generations Roadmap
Co-chair, Applications & Services, Working Group, International Network Generations Roadmap
Principal, GlobeNet, LLC

With Brian Walker of IEEE Future Directions Digital Studio

Click here to listen. 
Click here to download. 

Subscribe to our feed on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify

Podcast Transcript 

Brian Walker: Narendra, thank you for taking some time to contribute to the IEEE Future Network Podcast series.  You’ve talked about a sustainable ecosystem framework for 5G applications and services. Can you explain what that is and why we need it?

Narendra: Well, applications and services, when you think about it, is a fairly large area, and we needed a way to organize all the different types of applications and services we have. So, for example, we may have cases where we have a drone that may be used to deliver a pizza or may be used in a public safety context for determining situational awareness. So, the same application and services may be used in different ways and may have different requirements for that. That is the reason why we needed a conceptual framework that not only looks at it within the context of an ecosystem, but also among the different ecosystems to make sure that they’re connected, and they’re aligned with each other, as well as that it is also sustainable in that it is long-lasting. It is upgradable and actionable and it’s not something that we’re going to need to rip and replace very frequently, something that’s going to be there for some time.

Brian Walker: Do you see a common framework that can be effective across industries and applications?

Narendra: That’s an excellent question. We’ve thought long and hard about what are the best ways to approach the subject. We wanted something that has a common structure that we can build upon and is easy to understand across the spectrum. One area that we looked at is really more of a supply management framework. When I say that, I don’t necessarily mean it from a business aspect as far as business relationship, but more from an information flow. For example, if we’re looking at a continuum of care model for healthcare, we’re looking at a patient-centric information flow and best ways to optimize the supply chain across that ecosystem, and the same applies for an event-driven framework for public safety in a recovery continuum and mobility for multi-modal models for transportation and so on. Initially, we looked at five key ecosystems. That includes healthcare, public safety, electricity, water, and transportation. The new ecosystem that we’re targeting for the second edition [of the International Network Generations Roadmap] includes agriculture and education and entertainment.

Brian Walker: How is this overarching ecosystem of ecosystems approach more beneficial than current systems?

Narendra: That’s an excellent question, because that kind of follows from the framework that we’re using, in that we have the ability to break it down into different pieces, and what I mean by that is, for example, the public safety ecosystem. We can break that down into five different mission areas that include prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery, and within each one of these areas then we can treat this independently, and that gives us a lot of flexibility as far as how do we align that particular ecosystem to make one stage work well with another, as well as looking at how different ecosystems are aligned. So, how does public safety impact healthcare and how does it impact transportation and so on?  We’re looking at also, are there inter-ecosystem interdependencies and touchpoints? And at the end, a community or a local leader can use that, whether it’s a municipality or even at the national level, can look at that and combine all of the different ecosystems at the stage they happen to be at, and that may be different across communities, and to be able to use that to achieve the common objective that they have.

Brian Walker: What are the pros and cons of different deployment approaches?

Narendra: One area that came out of the overall framework was, “How do we apply that? How do we make this practical and still provide an outlook between the 5-to-10-year mark?” We looked at the common method that’s used, it’s a use case classification that you may be family with, that’s enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine type communications and ultra-reliable low-latency communications, also known as URLLC, and that is great, because it has a key set of considerations that we should take into account, and they include high data rates, low latency, connection of traffic density, reliability, and so on. But we wanted to look at it from a different angle. We wanted to look at it functionally first. So, we broke that down into the different components of any future network considerations, and that includes the access component, whatever that may happen to be in a future network, and the service delivery. Some people may align or associate that with edge or core networks, for example. We’re looking also from an operations, and a network management, and a customer relationship point of view, and the fourth stage is also looking at it from a network interoperability point of view. So, it may be a cellular interoperability, or it may be cellular to some special-purpose network that we have. This allows us basically to take into account not only the technologies, but also the different constraints that may apply across the board or may be more localized in nature.

Brian Walker: What are the enablers of this approach?

Narendra: The primary enablers we’re looking at-- we’re looking at it from two different aspects. Within the ecosystem there may be certain drivers in place that we need to take into account that’s really more-- that is more aligned with that ecosystem. Key drivers, for example, healthcare, maybe HIPAA constraints or requirements, and we’re looking also from a common ecosystem enabled point of view, and they may differ in the degree of priority they have, but they certain apply across the board, and they include areas such as security, privacy, trust, position determination, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and so on. So, we take that into account for common enablers. We also have a very broad perspective, so we are open to different types of technology, whether it be satellite, terrestrial cellular, wi-fi, or even fixed network. We’re using a combination of all of this, and together we’re looking at it with a broad technology agnostic point of view to assess the different areas.

Brian Walker: How do you anticipate this approach will be a benefit in the event of extreme weather, a future pandemic, or other disruptive event?

Narendra: This framework could actually be used on a broad level and at a localized level. First and foremost, we can look at treating any of the extreme weather or pandemic or any other disruptive event, whether planned or unplanned, within its own respective ecosystem. What that means is, for example, case in point, COVID-19. We can look at it as a healthcare problem because it is. It is first and foremost a healthcare problem. So, we can see, “How can we adjust this, use this model for supply and demand mismatches?” and by using the supply chain construct, it may be information flow to help with increasing the manufacturing capabilities, the need for deployable converted hospitals and really making sure that we have the supply of care available where it is needed. From the demand aspect, we can look at it from the common methods such as social distancing, dissemination of information for preventative measures, and also to help with fitness development, which is also very helpful, to help prevent any areas related to healthcare. Secondly, we can use these this framework to see how does it touch different ecosystems?  So, COVID-19 we know impacts the workforce. We know it impacts the food supply chain and education and transportation, and the list goes on and on. If an event happened to be sustained, then it would create more of a shock to that particular industry that makes up that ecosystem, and that is something that we will also need to take into account for the model, and it does accommodate that need, and third and lastly, the communities may be able to use those combined capabilities that may be different, again, across the different areas just to use it for its full potential to address the common objective for that local area.

Brian Walker: Are non-technical areas such as privacy, trust, and ethics under consideration?

Narendra: Absolutely. This is a key consideration. In fact, we started working in these areas in the first edition, and we will build on them for the second edition as well. Data governance models, privacy and transparency, they’re essential, really, for developing contextualized data models and basically, to be able to optimize the different ecosystems so that we can continue to build and get value out of them.

Brian Walker: Where can people go to learn more about 5G applications and services?

Narendra: For the first edition, anyone listening can go to the IEEE Future Network International Network Generations Roadmap and they’re found at futurenetworks.ieee.org. You will see the first edition for application and services, as well as the work from other working groups, and there’s also a webinar that was held in January 2020 that is also at the website and under the webinars tab, and you will be able to see all of the different working groups there.

Brian Walker: Thanks, Narenda. In closing, what would be your call to action for anyone listening to this podcast?

Narendra: We would love to have additional volunteers. We take a broad approach, as you can see, and we are looking for different volunteers with backgrounds in technology, ecosystems or different types of enablers that can help move the effort forward. We take an interdisciplinary approach to develop this, and really, what the end goal is. The hope is that we have more volunteers that could help provide diverse opinions, to provide a high-level perspective and projection of how the industry could evolve to highlight any common needs, to identify any of the challenges we have to achieving these needs, and to provide solutions. A diverse skillset is welcome, and aside from application and services, there’s also a number of working groups. In fact, there’s about 15 working groups so far and they address different diverse and challenging areas as well. Volunteers are definitely welcome, and we look forward to seeing more.

Brian Walker: Thank you for listening to this edition of the IEEE Future Networks “Podcasts with the Experts.”  Discover more about the IEEE Future Networks Initiative and inquire about participating in this effort by visiting our web portal at futrenetworks.ieee.org.