Which technologies will be needed for 6G?

• Organisers

  Carmen Vázquez, Universidad Carlos III Madrid, Spain
  Dimitra Simeonidou, University of Bristol, UK
  Zabih Ghassemlooy, Northumbria University, UK
  Paulo Monteiro, University of Aveiro, Portugal

• Subcommittees

  SC9 – Photonics for RF & Free-Space Optics Applications
  SC8 – Access, Indoor & Short-Reach for Data Centres and Mobile Networks

• Day & Time

  18.09.2022, 14:00 – 17:30

• Location

  Room Sydney

• Description

  This workshop will open a discussion trying to answer how different technologies can cope with the Key Performance Indicators and Key Valuable Indicators or social impact effects considered in 6G, including how to contribute to walk the path for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. From architectural issues identifying the needs on different scenarios to the solutions proposed by the different technologies including Transport and Access Networks, Optical Wireless Communications, THz, hybrid systems and Power over Fiber among others.

• Programme

  Session 1 (90 min, 10 min per speaker + 30 min discussion)
   14:00: Introduction
   14:10: End-to-end system requirements for 6G from a service provider’s perspective, Arjun Parekh, British Telecom, UK
   14:20: Transport Network in the path for 6G, Paola Iovanna, Ericsson, Italy
   14:30: Low latency access: can it be achieved over PONs and network virtualisation? Is there a role for free space optics?, Marco Ruffini, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
   14:40: Multi-user Tb/s Optical Wireless Systems for 6G, Jaafar Elmirghani, University of Leeds, UK
   14:50: Opportunities and challenges of power-over-fiber in 6G networks, Motoharu Matsuura, University of Electro-Communications, Japan
   15:00: Panel discussion
  

  Coffee Break (30 min)

  Session 2 (90 min, 10 min per speaker + 30 min discussion)
   16:00: Introduction
   16:10: Why Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) is Ready for 6G, Harald Haas, University of Strathclyde, UK
   16:20: Developing Next-Generation Wireless for 6G: Ultra-High Capacity Optical Solutions, Fernando Guiomar, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal
   16:30: The role of opto-electronic co-integration for 6G Systems and Networks, Idelfonso Tafur, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
   16:40: Terahertz technology for seamless networks, Tetsuya Kawanishi, Waseda University, Japan
   16:50: AI-Enabled Intelligent Visible Light Communications, Nan Chi, Fudan University, China
   17:00: Panel discussion and general conclusions

• Speakers

  Speaker 1: Arjun Parekh, British Telecom, UK
  Title: End-to-end system requirements for 6G from a service provider’s perspective
  Abstract: This talk will cover an operator’s view of the system requirements for 6G, looking at how mobile network usage has changed over the last decade to understand how services will evolve as we move into the 2030s.
  Biography: Arjun Parekh is an experienced technical leader in the areas of RAN optimisation, systems & data. Prior to moving into research he worked in RAN Design, from the introduction of GPRS through to 5G, providing technical leadership for the merging of Orange & T-Mobile Systems as part of the formation of EE, steering the development of processes & tools to drive the rollout of the UK's first 4G network, and driving optimisation best practice with managed service providers.

  Speaker 2: Paola Iovanna, Ericsson, Italy
  Title: Transport Network in the path for 6G
  Abstract: The evolution towards 6G impacts the Transport network in several aspects: the RAN and Core Network will be characterized by high modularity and cloudification. The increasing deployment of vertical services requiring E2E QoS (throughput, latency, availability, reliability) according to the related SLA, including services with extreme performances over three main network deployment scenarios (local, confined and wide area); the evolution of new radio deployments to enable very dense areas. The main challenge for the transport is guarantee E2E QoS avoiding over-provisioning to reduce cost for bit. Thus, high level of flexibility and E2E Transport aware orchestration is required.
  Biography: Paola Iovanna received the M.Sc. degree, in 1996. She is Principal Researcher at Ericsson, leading a research team on transport network and automation for 5GB and 6G. She is the author of more than 70 patents and 80 publications in either international scientific journals or conferences. She has been/is WP leaders and Innovation Manager in many EU projects. She was member of the Steering Board of the European Network of Excellence EURO NGI, and member of the Technical Program Committee of ECOC. She has made lecturer in several University (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, l’Ecole Superieure de Telecomunication of Paris, UC3M).

  Speaker 3: Marco Ruffini, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  Title: Low latency access: can it be achieved over PONs and network virtualisation? Is there a role for free space optics?
  Abstract: This talk addresses the issue of low latency in optical access networks, which is key to support low-latency applications and other services such as OpenRAN functional splits. Passive Optical Networks are being considered also for ORAN fronthaul, as they are cost-effective, and solutions were recently standardized to partly mitigate PON upstream latency issues. However, recent developments on Optical Line Terminal (OLT) disaggregation, currently under standardization at the BroadBand Forum (WT-477) further complicates the issue. The talk will try to answer the following questions: can low latency still be accomplished with cloud-based software OLTs? Can Free Space optics play a role?
  Biography: Marco Ruffini is Associate Professor at TCD, Principal Investigator of both CONNECT Telecommunications Research, and IPIC photonics centres. He leads the Optical Network and Radio Architecture group at Trinity College Dublin and the OpenIreland beyond 5G testbed research infrastructure. He authored over 160 international publications, 10 patents and contributed to industry standards.

  Speaker 4: Jaafar Elmirghani, University of Leeds, UK
  Title: Multi-user Tb/s Optical Wireless Systems for 6G
  Abstract: Traffic continues to grow in communication networks at 30% to 40% per year thus doubling every two years and increasing by factors of 30x and 1000x in 10 and 20 years respectively. The radio frequency spectrum is becoming highly congested and there is thus a need to explore other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Optical frequencies provide over three orders of magnitude more bandwidth compared to the RF spectrum. Optical wireless systems can exploit this spectrum to offer Tb/s wireless systems in indoor settings for example. This talk introduces multi-user Tb/s optical wireless systems and explores their design in indoor settings in future 6G wireless systems.
  Biography: Jaafar Elmirghani is Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of IET and Fellow of Institute of Physics and Director of the Institute of Communication and Power Networks, Leeds. He has provided outstanding leadership in a number of large research projects, secured over £30m in grants and was PI of the £6m EPSRC Intelligent Energy Aware Networks (INTERNET) Programme Grant, 2010-2016. He is Area Editor of IEEE JSAC series on Machine Learning for Communications and is PI of the EPSRC £6.6m Terabit Bidirectional Multi-user Optical Wireless System (TOWS) for 6G LiFi, 2019-2024. He has published over 550 technical papers, and has research interests in optical wireless systems and networks and in energy efficiency, optimisation and machine learning. He is Co-Chair of the IEEE Sustainable ICT initiative, a pan IEEE Societies initiative responsible for Green ICT activities across IEEE, 2012-present. He was awarded in international competition the IEEE Comsoc 2005 Hal Sobol award, 3 IEEE Comsoc outstanding technical achievement and service awards (2009, 2015, 2020), the 2015 GreenTouch 1000x award, IET Optoelectronics 2016 Premium Award for work on energy efficiency and shared the 2016 Edison Award in the collective disruption category with a team of 6 from GreenTouch for joint work on the GreenMeter. His work led to 5 IEEE standards with a focus on cloud and fog computing and energy efficiency, where he currently heads the work group responsible for IEEE P1925.1, IEEE P1926.1, IEEE P1927.1, IEEE P1928.1 and IEEE P1929.1 standards; this resulting in significant impact through industrial and academic uptake.

  Speaker 5: Motoharu Matsuura, University of Electro-Communications, Japan
  Title: Opportunities and challenges of power-over-fiber in 6G networks
  Abstract: This talk will introduce the role and latest achievements of power-over-fiber (mainly focusing on long-distance transmission and high-power transmission) and optical wireless powering. The challenges of power-over-fiber in 6G networks will also be discussed.
  Biography: Motoharu Matsuura received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan, in 2004. From 2010 to 2011, he joined the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, as a visiting researcher. Currently, he is a Professor of the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. He has been researching power-over-fiber, optical signal processing, and radio-over-fiber transmission systems. He is the author or co-author of more than 230 papers published in international refereed journals and conferences.

  Speaker 6: Harald Haas, University of Strathclyde, UK
  Title: Why Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) is Ready for 6G
  Abstract: Cyber security, energy efficiency, data density and peak data rates of up to 1 Tbps are some of the key performance indicators of 6G. With current radio frequency (RF) technologies it will be difficult to advance all these performance indicators jointly due to fundamental spectrum limitations in the RF domain. What is needed to achieve step-change improvements in all those key performance indicators together is substantial new spectrum, devices at high optical-to-electrical (OE) conversion efficiencies and the ability to spatially control signal radiation tightly and at low energy cost. To this end, OWC can leverage decades of developments in optical fiber communications. We will summarize recent advancements in OWC with respect to peak data rates, data density, security and energy efficiency and in the context of wireless networks that will support user mobility and can deal with non-line-of sight (NLOS) situations. Moreover, we provide a status of IEEE 802.11bb standardization and discuss existing challenges and the road ahead.
  Biography: Harald Haas received the Ph.D. degree from The University of Edinburgh in 2001. He is a Distinguished Professor of Mobile Communications at The University of Strathclyde/Glasgow, Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh and the Director of the LiFi Research and Development Centre. Prof Haas set up and co-founded pureLiFi. He currently is their Chief Scientific Officer. His research interests are in cellular communications, spatial modulation and optical wireless communications. He has co-authored more than 600 conference and journal papers and holds more than 40 patents. He has been listed as highly cited researcher by Clarivate/Web of Science since 2017. In 2016, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Solid State Lighting Alliance. In 2019 he was recipient of IEEE Vehicular Society James Evans Avant Garde Award. In 2017 he received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. In 2021, he received the Enginuity The Connect Places Innovation Award. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

  Speaker 7: Fernando Guiomar, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal
  Title: Developing Next-Generation Wireless for 6G: Ultra-High Capacity Optical Solutions
  Abstract: 6G will require support to peak bit-rates in the Terabit-per-second range, which will challenge the physical limits of standalone radio-frequency communications. To unlock the capacity of next-generation wireless systems, novel free-space optical communications are currently under development. In this talk, we will review of our latest work on visible-light and near-infrared optical wireless transmission delivering bit-rates up to 1 Tbps, leveraged by the use of advanced modulation/coding, digital signal processing, channel modelling/estimation and machine learning techniques, with the aim of supporting the foreseen 6G requirements of ultra-high-capacity and reliability at the physical layer.
  Biography: Fernando Guiomar received the Ph.D. degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from University of Aveiro, Portugal. In 2015, he has joined Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and CISCO Optical GmbH, Nuremberg under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship. Since 2017, he is a senior researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações, where his main research interests are within the area of fiber-based and free-space optical communications, including the development of DSP algorithms, advanced modulation and coding, constellation shaping and nonlinear modelling/mitigation. In 2020, he was awarded a 3-year Junior Leader Fellowship by the “la Caixa” Foundation. Fernando Guiomar is an IEEE and OSA member, and he has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific publications in leading international journals and conferences.

  Speaker 8: Idelfonso Tafur, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
  Title: The role of opto-electronic co-integration for 6G Systems and Networks
  Abstract: Although we don’t know exactly how 6G networks will look like beyond 2030, we may assume that we will most likely communicate using holograms, digital twins, and that the merge of real and virtual reality had happen in an hyper-reality internet. Such new ways of communications will demand large capacity and ultra-low latency. Developing such technologies such as Terahertz frequency, terabit data wireless links, seems a futuristic endeavor. This talk considers the role of photonics in tackling the challenge to realize systems to generate, detect, multiplex and process terabit volumes of data in 6G systems and networks.
  Biography: Idelfonso Tafur is Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Eindhoven University of Technology. He is principal investigator in the Center for Quantum Materials and Technology (QT/e), the Center for Photonics Integration (CIPI) and the Center for Wireless Technology (CWTe) and co-founder of the Center for Terahertz Science and Technology (CTSTe). He performs and supervises research on the convergence of electronics and photonics technologies for applications such as THz communications, sensing and imaging. More recently, he and his team are setting up the Eindhoven test-bed for quantum secure communications, as part of the Dutch program Quantum Delta.

  Speaker 9: Tetsuya Kawanishi, Waseda University, Japan
  Title: Terahertz technology for seamless networks
  Abstract: 6G mobile networks will require a variety of transmission media such as optical fiber, millimeter wave, and terahertz wave to make many base stations and remote antennas connected. To alleviate radio frequency congestion, traffic in the microwave band must be minimized by seamless networks in which, the waveforms of wireless services connecting end users are transmitted over optical fiber or terahertz wave. This presentation focuses on the terahertz technologies which can be used for long reach links dedicated to non-terrestrial networks, as well as for access networks.
  Biography: Tetsuya Kawanishi received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in electronics from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in 1992, 1994, and 1997, respectively. From 1994 to 1995, he was with the Production Engineering Laboratory, Panasonic. In 1997, he was with the Venture Business Laboratory, Kyoto University, where he was engaged in research on electromagnetic scattering and near-field optics. In 1998, he joined NICT, Tokyo, Japan. In 2004, he was a Visiting Scholar with UCSD. Since April 2015, he has been a Professor with Waseda University, Tokyo. His current research interests include high speed optical modulators and RF photonics.

  Speaker 10: Nan Chi, Fudan University, China
  Title: AI-Enabled Intelligent Visible Light Communications
  Abstract: Visible light communication (VLC) is a highly promising complement to conventional wireless communication for local-area networking in the future 6G. AI algorithms are potential tools to apply in VLC system and improve its transmission performance. In this talk, we present a detailed overview of advances of machine learning in VLC system and verify its excellent ability for future high-speed and high-quality VLC system, including optimal coding, channel emulator, MIMO, channel equalization, and optimal decision.
  Biography: Professor Nan Chi is with School of Information Science and Engineering, Fudan University, China. She received the BS degree and PhD degree in electrical engineering from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China. She is the author or co-author of more than 300 papers and has been cited more than 10000 times. She has been awarded as The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the New Century Excellent Talents Awards from the Education Ministry of China, Shanghai Shu Guang scholarship. Her current research interests include optical packet/label switching, optical fiber communication and visible light communication. She is a fellow of the OSA.