5G is being globally deployed and commercially lunched. With the world’s leading mobile network operators accelerating their commercial rollout of 5G networks, it is expected that more than 6.5 million 5G base stations will be deployed to bring 5G services to 58% of the world's population, and the number of global 5G connections will exceed 100 billion beyond 2025. 

5G is not only deeply rooted in the traditional consumer electronics industry, but also receives extensive attention in the manufacturing industry. Operators are increasingly endeavoring to bring the expertise of managing a high quality air-interface, network operation, optimization, and service interoperability to connect people, homes, industrial equipment, and so on.

In anticipation of significant 5G penetration and the 5G traffic volume by 2025, continuously improving 5G networks is inevitable. Especially, 5G evolution envisions commercializing today’s attractive use cases, as well as bringing new value to all stakeholders through strong technological improvement and maturity. At the same time, backward compatibility needs to be ensured to protect the industry’s investments, and to have the 5G eco-system be healthy and sustainable. 

A well-defined 5G evolution framework with common industry understanding will help to achieve these goals. Such a framework will encompass the targeted commercial use cases beyond 2025, the requirements of 5G evolution, and its key technology directions.

It is noted that in 2020 NGMN released NGMN white paper 2.0, which welcomes research starting on the future evolution of wireless systems and accordingly suggests that future wireless systems help address the societal and environmental requirements, challenges and opportunities. In light of this recommendation, further 5G wireless evolution becomes increasingly important for all industrial partners, aiming to expand 5G use cases, to bring new values to the industry. 

Typically, three years are needed to develop the necessary standards and to build the eco-system. Now it is natural to initiate 5G wireless evolution technology study and industry incubation targeting commercialization around 2025. It could be a good start to publish a joint 5G technology white paper on wireless evolution to call for further study and help to reach consensus on key components of the evolution. Towards a sustainable 5G, this white paper outlines the key ingredients of 5G wireless technology to be further consolidated by all relevant industry sections and players.