ATIS said a new paper is part of a broader effort to better understand and influence spectrum access, management, policy recommendations, standards and long-term needs in future 6G spectrum
ATIS’ Next G Alliance (NGA) released a new white paper that provides a detailed assessment of North American spectrum bands and their future readiness for future 6G deployments.
ATIS noted that bandwidth and spectrum allocation issues are also covered in the new white paper.
The paper overviews the current spectrum allocations for 3G/4G/5G in Canada, Mexico and the United States and is part of a broader effort to better understand and influence spectrum access, management, policy recommendations, standards and long-term needs in future 6G spectrum, the entity added.
“U.S. leadership in critical and emerging technologies will depend on its global leadership in opening spectrum for 6G,” said Next G Alliance’s managing director Mike Nawrocki. “This paper lays the groundwork for this leadership by conveying critical industry insights into North American spectrum bands as they relate to the future needs of 6G innovation. As with previous generations of mobile technology, spectrum will be a true catalyst for establishing 6G market readiness. The issues covered in this report also offer an opportunity for industry engagement with policymakers and regulatory bodies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on how to address critical issues now to prepare for the 6G future,” he added.
ATIS also highlighted that the NGA has developed this paper as the first comprehensive survey of spectrum bands that have the potential to support future 6G systems in North America. It also provides a basis for early engagement on the challenges associated with potential bands and opportunities for mitigating potential interference with incumbent users, ATIS said.
“Spectrum is the lifeblood for all commercial mobile broadband systems,” said Andrew Thiessen, chair of ATIS’ Next G Alliance Spectrum Working Group. “We have seen consistent evolution in the use of these systems from one generation to the next, along with an ever-increasing demand for spectrum to satisfy the needs of each system. As such, serious and diligent study of spectrum that could be made available to future systems is critical.”
ATIS also said that NGA also plans to publish a white paper on the future 6G spectrum needs considering frequency-dependent characteristics and target key performance indicators (KPIs) from a spectrum perspective for enabling technologies’ and applications’ performance requirements.
In May, NGA announced the publication of a new report dubbed “6G Roadmap for Vertical Industries”, which focuses on the demand side of future 6G systems.
The report builds on the NGA’s 2022 roadmap to 6G report, which established the North American vision for next generation communications systems.
The report explores how as-yet-unstandardized 6G technology can help meet the applications needs of a broad range of industries including agriculture, automotive, education, gaming and entertainment, eHealth, industrial, mining, public safety and smart cities.
NGA noted that the report traces the implications of vertical-specific use cases into applications that future 6G technology can enable and highlights promising technologies that need to be researched and engineered into operational systems.
