In this publication, the NGMN Alliance builds on its earlier work and sets out important aspects for network evolution, considering the opportunities, challenges and design objectives that are intended to guide the broader industry towards delivering services valued by end users. The objectives of this work have been to explore design requirements and provide timely guidance to the industry, to play a key role in avoiding fragmentation of 6G standards and ecosystem to achieve affordable deployments, and to engage with different stakeholders, monitor external 6G activities and facilitate timely exchange with external organisations.

This contribution serves to offer guidance towards the realisation of the vision of communication systems for 2030 and beyond, currently being developed by ITU-R. As the community builds consensus around potential trends, use cases and associated capabilities, it becomes imperative to prioritise design considerations in all aspects, from research and innovations to implementation, deployment, and operational models.

In general, the foundation from which this contribution has been developed is on the understanding that there will be a graceful evolution towards 6G, and at this stage we do not rule out the possibility that 6G is an evolution of 5G, either for the core network, the RAN, or both.

The requirements include a set of essential needs related to network evolution, such as digital inclusion, energy efficiency towards containment of the overall network energy consumption, and environmental sustainability, as well as the capabilities associated with the prospective generic use cases defined in earlier NGMN publications [1], [2] and highlighted in Section 3. In addition, the overall conditions related to the introduction of new service creation must be considered.

We recommend that research, and the development of future ecosystems, should prioritise the key challenges to address societal and environmental needs, including wellbeing, prosperity, sustainability, security, resilience and inclusion. In addition, further enablement of digital transformation and automated industries is expected to advance, to address future market needs, with expanded and differentiated opportunities, operational efficiency, and economic sustainability.