The European Commission’s (EC) 6G flagship initiative, known as Hexa-X-II, will drive the agenda of developing the next generation of wireless technology through to global 6G standardization, which is expected in 2025. The Hexa-X-II project has been awarded funding from the EC to continue research on the technological components, which began in Hexa-X-I, and look forward to how they fit together in an end-to-end system.
The consortium of industrial and academic partners, which make up Hexa-X-II, met for the first time in Espoo, Finland, this week to begin designing the 6G platform. Nokia will be the project leader for Hexa-X-II, following its leadership of the first Hexa-X project. Ericsson will serve as the technical manager for Hexa-X-II. Orange, TIM SpA, TU Dresden, and University of Oulu will help coordinate various work packages, including radio evolution, future devices and flexible infrastructure.
Hexa-X-II will produce the first 6G specification in 3GPP Release 21 by 2028, which will be followed by commercial deployments around 2030. The springboard for 6G will be 5G-Advanced, Ericsson said, which will be a focus for 3GPP in Release 18 and 19. With the research on the next generation of mobile networks under way, the window for pre-standardization telco alignment of 6G is right now, according to Magnus Frodigh, Head of Ericsson Research, in a blog post.
“In the first phase of the 6G journey, the 6G flagship research project Hexa-X has laid the foundation for future mobile networks, framing the 6G research questions and performing explorative research on key technological enablers,” Frodigh wrote. “Now, Hexa-X-II will pick up the mantle as the flagship 6G research project for the second phase of the 6G journey – focused on systemization and pre-standardization.”
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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