This section allows others to contribute their opinions. The content does not necessarily represent the views of, or endorsement by Inside Towers.
While much about 6G remains yet to be determined, experts agree that it will help society take giant steps forward using new wireless technologies. This potential extends from new radio, compute, and cloud technologies enabled by native application of artificial intelligence to advancing wireless technologies driving a seamless interworking of communications technologies with society.
Such progress drives new challenges; the creation and broad use of 6G will expand the digital threat surface, exposing unanticipated vulnerabilities. This larger attack area, combined with a multitude of use cases across industries and ecosystems, makes robust security, privacy, and resilience more urgent and challenges the wireless infrastructure industry to carry some of the weight.
More pervasive use-cases mean the 6G system will be used in applications in which the stakes are higher for society, safety, business risk, and environmental impact. Thus, we have the challenge resulting from the complex combination of a higher threat surface combined with higher business and societal stakes.
New use cases in the 6G vision include advancements such as haptic 3D communications, precise location and cooperative robotics, integration of digital twins with large-scale design and industry projects, as well as operations and revolutionizing how we address remote healthcare and education.
Such communications will require new network architectures–a seamless integration of different types of networks: wireline, microwave point-to-point, terrestrial cellular, satellite, WiFi, PAN (Bluetooth), NFC, etc. Making this all work together means pervasive use of AI and advancement of cloud and edge compute technology and architecture.
Wireless infrastructure and mobile network operators can provide clear guidance in these areas:
- Setting specific policies on implementation and the use of data. While 6G will increase the data quantities and data rates for devices, it must feature ironclad rules explaining how protection measures for different types of data should be managed.
- Stringent security standards. Clear security standard practices can make a seismic difference. These include designs and architectures that lend themselves to more secure systems. These systems should focus on implementation processes for large systems, such as configuration management, appropriate use of security sub-systems, and good coding practices.
- Strong operational controls. Many successful security breaches come from poor use of robust security mechanisms. Poor configurations, non-implementation of crucial features, and other oversights can cause exposure vulnerabilities that are easy to avoid.
- Proper measurements. Risk levels will vary by use case, and over time, making the question of “how secure is it?” difficult to answer.
Given the intent for much broader societal use, the ultimate success of 6G will come down to security and network resilience. While the capabilities and speed change, the need for strong security will always remain high. We must learn from the challenges of our previous rollouts. Many of the challenges we saw during those periods translate regardless of the level of technology. We know that with clear guidelines, collaboration around industry-driven standards, and policies will help 6G reach its potential.
Roger Nichols is 6G Program Manager at Keysight Technologies (KEYS) where he has been directing Keysight’s 5G programs since 2014. He also directs programs, wireless standards strategies and represents Keysight in the O-RAN Alliance.
By Roger Nichols, 6G Program Manager at Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS)
Reader Interactions