6G: The Next Technological Leap The Future is Here!

5G expansion is continuing throughout the world, with networks providing new communication capabilities and services that are set to transform society. The next wave of development is now taking place through 5G. Future networks will be a fundamental component for the functioning of virtually all parts of life, society, and industries, fulfilling the communication needs of humans as well as intelligent machines. To make the best out of this situation, both the industry and research community should work together toward a common vision. 6G needs to continue to push beyond the technical limits of 5G, moving toward critical services, immersive communication, and omnipresent IoT.

Left to Right: Shashi Dharan, Bharat Exhibitions, TV Ramachandran, BIF, A Robert J Ravi, DoT, Sanjeev Kumar, TCIL, S Krishnan, MeitY, Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, COAI, Sandeep Saxena, Nokia, Ashwani Rana, BIF

In this backdrop, Bharat Exhibitions organized the second edition of BHARAT 6G 2024 International Conference & Exhibition on 15th of May 2024 at Hotel Le-Meridien, New Delhi. Key leaders, innovators, developers, and experts from all industry verticals converged to share their thoughts, experiences and predictions for the “6G standardization and deployment in India”.

The conference started with the Plenary Panel Discussion on the topic: Research and Standardization Roadmaps for 6G. Distinguished guests included Mr. T.V. Ramachandran, President, BIF, who gave the welcome speech. “6G standards will bring and mandate a new much-elevated baseline performance for both the networks and the devices. Recent 5G-advanced have developed many different capabilities on energy efficiency, on uplink performance, on coverage enhancements and more,” he said. He also stressed on the extensive research conducted on 6G standards. “India will go places,” he harnessed.

Shri A. Robert Jerard Ravi, DDG (SRI), DoT presided over the session as the session chair. “India is preparing for the arrival of 6G wireless technology, with commercial deployment to be expected by 2030. We are actively working on standardizations in various verticals within the country. Can we have 6G run network in India that is our vision,” he stated.

Shri S. K. Marwaha, Scientist G & Group Coordinator, MeitY, “We have already working in standard research in some educational institutions within the country. Our industry collaboration and operators should come together more actively to make things work things work efficiently,” he mentioned in his speech.

Prof. Kiran Kuchi, Dean – R & D, IIT, Hyderabad, “I would like to thank DoT and MEITY for active co-operation in standards development. We need to increase our output. Time is right for 6G, funding is the key now,” he stressed upon.

Shri AK Mittal, Advisor, TSDSI, mentioned his speech, “India’s active role in 5G and 6G standardization has increased interest in Indias technological breakthroughs, with countries such as the United States expressing a strong desire to receive Indias cutting-edge 6G technology. We are taking Indian requirements and Indian innovations to global standards organizations.“

Mr. Pradeep Bhardwaj, Sr. Strategy Director & Head of Industry Standards, Syniverse, in his speech emphasized, “In 4G we spent 48 months, what did we did in 5G, 27 months, we rolled out 5G standards, we should have taken more time, as it is affecting each and every domain in the world now. The key is how we approach the new way of life, set new standards and now we are seeing results.”

Mr. Dinesh Chand Sharma, Director – Standards & Public Policy, SESEI said, “It’s a great time for 6G standardizations. Participation has gone up. Start-ups are playing a major role in helping 6G standardizations. We need to have a funding mechanism for this, a consortium is always there for collaboration, and we just need to push it more.”

The session was then open up to questions and answers among the participants.

Inaugural Session: Network Evolution beyond 5G & India’s Vision for 6G

Chief Guest, Shri S. Krishnan,Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India captivated the audience during Inaugural Session of the Bharat 6G 2024 conference. He mentioned, “Both 5G and 6G roll outs happen simultaneously, we at the Govt level are trying our level best. We are setting standards, connecting with players, and bringing in all key components together so that everything functions across all sectors. It is a national goal for us, and we are on the right track”. He further added, that ‘6G has the potential to enhance India’s digital economy’ and that it will lead to data proliferation and provide better input for AI to be used. “All industry leaders should come together,” he stressed upon.

Mr. Ashwani Rana, Vice President, BIF gave the introductory address. In his speech he mentioned, “Lot of activities are taking place in 6G standardization and implementation. Evolution of networks is quite exciting for a country like India, with diverse background. AI, ML, IoT will play pivotal role in 6G deployment within the country.“

Mr. Shyam Mardikar, Group Chief Technology Officer – Mobility, Reliance Jio was the next to speak. He mentioned, “The role of 6G in cementing India’s digital leadership. The 6G Core must support exceedingly dense telecom networks given the high frequency bands the network will use. Moreover, 6G must be backward compatible with 5G and 4G. JPL is therefore working on evolving the core network so that all the telecom generations – 4G, 5G, and 6G – can interwork.”

Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, Director General, COAI in his special address was heard saying, “I would like to congratulate the Govt, DoT for a speeder roll outs. An amalagamation of information technology is the need of the hour. Networks, Data, Speed and Applications, are key components and the dynamics of these will add to the success and application of 5G and beyond.“

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman and MD, TCIL stressed on the importance of 6G or high speed internet facilities in rural areas. During COVID, healthcare centers were highly impacted by connectivity. Financial or digitalization of the banking system is the most important, homeland security too needs to be mentioned in this regard.

Mr. Sandeep Saxena, Head of Technology & Solutions (Mobile Networks) India, NOKIA delivered the Industry Address. He touched upon the economic aspect vis a vis network connectivity in India. He said, “In the 6G era, the digital, physical and human world will seamlessly fuse to trigger extrasensory experiences. Intelligent knowledge systems will be combined with robust computation capabilities to make humans endlessly more efficient and redefine how we live, work and take care of the planet. Even though there is still a lot of innovation in 5G with the Nokia Bell Labs has already begun the research work on 6G to make it commercially available by 2030.”

Mr. Shashi Dharan, Managing Director, Bharat Exhibitions delivered the Vote of Thanks. In his speech he said, “India is already moving beyond the deployment of 5G technology to create and install its faster and superior successor: the sixth generation of telecom networks, or 6G. The Bharat 6G Vision, is a strategy to create 6G technology in India by 2030. The objective of this vision is to create and deploy 6G network technologies that provide secure, intelligent, and pervasive connectivity, enabling people all over the world to live better lives. This might be a game changer for the Indian economy.“

The conference had other segments like 2 Technical Sessions and a Panel Discussion throughout the day.

Other eminent speakers who spoke during the conference were Mr. Jeevan Talegaonkar, Vice President, Reliance Jio; Mr. Vikesh Sharma, Head of Radio Technology, NOKIA India; Mr. Pradeep Bhardwaj, Sr. Strategy Director & Head of Industry Standards, Syniverse; Mr. Saurabh Mittal, Vice President (Network R&D), Bharti Airtel; Mr. Mahesh Basavaraju, Market Segment Manager – Wireless Communications, Rohde & Schwarz; Mr. Rohit Kumar, Head of Research & Development, CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd; Mr. Vikalp Dutt, Director RAN Sales Engineering, Mavenir Systems; Mr. Sanjay Kumar, General Manager & Project Director, TCIL; Mr. Soumen Bhowmik, Assistant Manager – IX, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI); Mr. Manoj Gurnani, Head of Strategy & Technology, NOKIA India; Mr. Dharmender Khajuria, National Head – Network Partnerships, Bharti Airtel.

6G and India: A Glimpse

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT)s efforts in 6G standardization have successfully resulted in the adoption of ubiquitous connectivity, ubiquitous intelligence, and sustainability as the key elements of the 6G technology. Indias 6G vision aims to introduce 6G technology in the country by 2030.

The summit was supported by Ministry of Communications, Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Bharat 6G Alliance, ETSI, COAI, ITU-APT Foundation of India and Partnered by Nokia, Syniverse, Rohde & Schwarz, CSC e-Governance Services, NIXI, Mavenir, C-DOT, TCIL, Anritsu, Khushi Communications, SyRotech Networks, Communications Today and Broadband India Forum.