Since the Trump administration imposed sanctions on China’s Huawei, the mobile communication industry has been concerned about the existence of globally unified standards. Although 5G still maintains global interoperability (iPhones purchased in London can be used normally in New York or Beijing), with the increasing risk of technology decoupling between China and the United States, the 6G standard is facing a crisis of fragmentation.

3GPP: Technical Diplomacy in War

It is expected to be five years before the commercial use of 6G, and the mobile communication standardization organization 3GPP is still a “safe zone” in the competition among various parties. Huawei, as the largest 5G equipment manufacturer in China, although banned in North America and some Eurasian countries, its representatives still participate in 3GPP meetings together with competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia. On June 9th, the Prague meeting reached an important outcome – all parties reached an agreement on the final version of 5G, Release 20. Juan Montojo, Vice President of Qualcomm Technologies Standards, believes that this demonstrates 3GPP’s resilience in geopolitical turbulence.

All parties involved firmly believe in the value of a single global standard, “Montojo emphasized to Light Reading,” I have not found any exceptions. “Adrian Scrase, former Chief Technology Officer of the European Standards Institute (ETSI), warned that if the standard split of the 2G era were to occur again, it would have” catastrophic consequences.

Patent Game and Rule Evolution

The rapid increase in the proportion of 5G core patents in China has raised concerns. According to Eva Dou, author of “House of Huawei,” Huawei has teamed up with Chinese companies to counter Qualcomm’s key 5G technology proposals. However, Montojo pointed out that the new 3GPP regulations have restricted single regional representatives from leading the agenda, and multinational corporations must divide their regional ownership according to the location of their headquarters.

The existing 5G leaders are likely to continue leading the development of 6G. According to LexisNexis data, Huawei has the highest number of 5G patents, while Qualcomm has the highest patent value rating. Montojo expects the patent landscape of 6G to be similar to that of 5G: “No surprise, it’s still those old holes.”

Technical Continuity and Economic Accounts

6G is likely to be an evolution of 5G rather than a revolution. This is advantageous for Qualcomm, which relies on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology patent licensing – this technology accounts for the “vast majority” of its licensing revenue, contributing 14% of revenue and 39% of pre tax profit last year. Ericsson explicitly supports using OFDM for 6G, and analysts believe that Huawei also favors this solution.

Montojo explained: “Operators strongly hope to maintain the OFDM system to achieve smooth migration from 5G to 6G. He revealed that through algorithm optimization, OFDM spectrum efficiency can be improved by 40% -60% compared to existing 5G, accelerating the upgrade from mid to low frequency bands to 6G.

Challenges in the High Frequency Band and Lessons Learned from the Core Network

The problem of poor signal penetration in the high-frequency band reserved for 6G (above 6GHz) will be solved by increasing the number of antennas. Montojo stated that the number of active antenna system components in 6G will be four times that of current 5G, but analysts are concerned that high costs may affect commercial feasibility.

The industry also hopes to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 5G core network – most operators graft the 5G new air interface onto the 4G core network for rapid commercialization, resulting in slow progress in independent networking. In an ideal scenario, the 6G air interface would directly interface with the 6G core network, “Montojo said.” Operators hope that the 6G core network can be compatible with 5G, but the specific extent is yet to be defined. ”

The risk of division still exists

Montojo affirmed in his blog that Release 20 laid the foundation for 6G, but warned that government intervention could still undermine the results. If manufacturers are restricted to regional markets with vastly different demands, the motivation to participate in global standard setting will weaken. At this moment, five years from the commercial countdown to 6G, maintaining the unity of the technology “United Nations” 3GPP is more challenging than ever.