This Work Item will identify relevant scenarios and frequencies of interest for HF communication, based on the overall one6G use cases and scenarios defined by WG1. Then, it will perform a survey on existing channel measurements and modeling in selected frequencies. Based on the result of scenario selection and the results of the capabilities of HF in supporting those scenarios, it will identify and perform initial investigation of the main design challenges for HF communication.

The next-generation of networks will bring increased demand of data rates, higher frequency bands, increased density of mobile devices, enhanced requirements of security and extreme energy efficiency. This requires enhancing the widely used technologies such as waveform, modulation and coding, non-orthogonal multiple access, full-duplex, etc. to approach the theoretic limits, e.g., in terms of spectral and energy efficiency. After defining relevant scenarios to illustrate the problem and the challenges, as well as reviewing the existing work done to address them, this Work Item will investigate possible enhancements and identify the direction in which the future radio should develop in order to address the said challenges.

The two promising features, namely intelligent user plane (IUP) and in-network computing (INC), are expected to play an important role in the 6G architecture. Along with other features and enhancements (e.g., in the radio access), they are supposed to address the wide range of challenges that 6G is facing (e.g., extreme latency requirements, architecture flexibility, etc.) The goal of this Work Item is to investigate how IUP and INC can be used to address the said challenges. The Work Item will enable full integration “applications-computation-network”, i.e., provide environment in which these three (so far independently considered) paradigms will be given equal and monolithic treatment.

Next-generation multi-input multi-output (MIMO) is anticipated to become a key enabling technology for 6G. The Work Item analyzes the potential of promising new concepts like cell-free MIMO, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS), AI/ML-enabled distributed MIMO, as well as new trends and solutions in antenna technologies.

It is widely believed that next-generation mobile radio systems will be designed for simultaneous communication and sensing by exploiting the sensing capabilities of radio frequency (RF) signals in the mmWave and THz bands. This Work Item’s goal is to investigate potential ways in which this integration can happen. Among others, the following topics make the Work Item agenda:

• Integrating sensing in a communication waveform (i.e., OFDM), as well as integrating communication in a sensing waveform (i.e., FMCW)
• New waveforms for integrated communication and sensing, e.g., orthogonal time frequency space modulation (OTFS)
• Investigation of communication systems with very large RF bandwidths (several GHz) for sensing but with low complexity (i.e., stepped or sparse OFDM)

The scope of this Work Item is to lay out the foundations of scalable programmable infrastructures suitable for 6G that focuses on several aspects, such as:

• Holistic, unified view on resources as a distributed set of compute, network and terminal elements
• Resilient, flexible, and in-band control realized as a distributed system on one set of resources
• Support for inclusion of resources through their discovery and on-the-fly inclusion/declarative, more expressive network infrastructure programming approach

This Work Item is rooted in a number of requirements and expectations that 6G is sought to fulfill, such as, among others: the need to provide support for full service execution, rather than supporting just connectivity sessions between points in the network, and the need to integrate making of informed, runtime decisions (scheduling) as part of normal network operation.

Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) specify radio access networks where the access nodes (in particular base stations) are carried on airborne (drones, balloons, or aircrafts) or spaceborne platforms (satellites). The latest technology advances of NTN-based communication and its integration into terrestrial radio networks (TN) facilitate ubiquitous connectivity for nearly all types of services, which enables novel use cases with guaranteed service availability any time and everywhere. This Work Item aims to elaborate on these types of novel use cases and the related challenges, and investigate novel technologies toward the integration and convergence of NTN and TN.

In a distributed platform, e.g., in carrier networks, performing centralized learning is not optimal and often too costly due to data gathering overhead, considerable energy supply requirements at the centralized DC to be shouldered by the responsible tenant/owner, and privacy issues. This Work Item studies distributed techniques to enable learning over a pool of possibly heterogeneous resources (e.g., computing, connectivity, storage, data, and energy resources) distributed from the core to the deep edge. Special attention is paid to the consideration of energy source nature of the resources to be used to achieve a preferential usage of renewable energy sources (such as local wind and solar energy) for compute-intensive AI computations, thus making the innate 6G AI greener and more sustainable.

This Work Item investigates novel approaches to energy consumption and carbon footprint reduction of ICT services in the era of next-generation mobile telecommunications (6G). It starts with understanding and describing the current ecosystem around energy consumption and CO2e production in the ICT industry. This includes applicable legislation, the requirements for energy consumption and CO2e reduction, currently available approaches to energy reduction, etc. In a later phase, this Work Item will come up with suggestions and concrete approaches to energy consumption/CO2e reduction. These may include, but will not be limited to, novel mechanisms to energy consumption metering, usage of the metered data to perform energy consumption minimization or reduction, methods to enable integration and explicit usage of green energy sources, etc. Economic approaches to energy consumption reduction, e.g., through providing incentives for energy-aware service usage, may also be considered.

Multimodal (including haptic) communication services enrich interactions in various vertical use cases such as industrial remote operations. The users in a controller domain utilize the controlled devices (actuators e.g., robotic arm) for performing operations remotely. Thus, the resulting bi-directional multimodal communication poses extreme and/or conflicting stringent requirements on the underlying communication, such as ultra-low latency and ultra-high reliability, availability, and security.

The scope of this Work Item is to lay out the foundations of multimodal communication for 6G remote operation and investigates related aspects such as:

• Tactile and multimodal communication use cases for remote operation over 6G, including multi-user, multi-device applications and their requirements, and performance indicators.
• 6G functionalities required to support multimodal sensing, interaction- and action-based on use case requirements and device multimodal technologies and capabilities.
• AI/ML solutions toward meeting the main KPIs of multimodal communications.
• Architecture impacts featuring full integration sensing-computation-communication-actuation.

There is an escalating demand for robotic applications in areas such as logistics, automation, healthcare assistance and operation. Wireless sensing, communication, computational, and automation abilities in robotic systems are essential for greater reliability, capability, and operational efficiency. Networked robots have their root in teleoperation systems, which started as remotely controlled devices. Teleoperation attracted significant industrial interest particularly due to the pandemic to prevent physical contact between the expert and the workers in the factory, so that the expert has to work from (e.g., remote inspection, remote certification, remote maintenance, or remote repair). The main goal of this Work Item is to investigate robotic related features that will appear in 6G, and define the cornerstones of 6G architecture that support the mentioned robotics applications.

Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) introduces a paradigm shift in transportation. It embodies the integration of state-of-the-art communication technologies and automated driving functionalities to improve transportation system efficiency and provide a safer, more convenient mobility. By utilizing wireless communications among vehicles, infrastructure, and Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), CCAM aims to enhance transportation systems through increased safety, efficiency, and environmental sustainability. This Work Item will identify and investigate technologies needed to enable the new CCAM use cases.

The primary objective of this Work Item is to thoroughly investigate the transformative potential of high-resolution sensing, precise localization, advanced imaging techniques, and complex environmental reconstruction methodologies within the context of 6G systems. Our overarching aim is to advance the evolution of 6G systems towards the realization of a comprehensive immersive communication paradigm. This pursuit is grounded in the seamless integration of Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) capabilities, accompanied by native AI integration and dynamic computing-network orchestration within the network architecture. Leveraging empirical observations and methodological insights gleaned from the deployment of conventional mechanisms within 5G frameworks, our goal is to distil essential insights and lessons to guide our approach.

An increased set of new features as well as increased performance requirements from various use cases will pose challenges to 6G system architecture design. For instance, how to enrich the Telco scope service diversity but keep operational efficiency? How to provide user level customization but without scaling up the service provisioning complexity? How to shorten new service time to market under sufficient standardization process to ensure interoperability?
With these questions in mind, this Work Items will seek answers by utilizing agentic AI as the key technology. The topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Agent Definition & Capability Modeling (Specify agent roles, define cognitive capabilities: perception, reasoning, learning, decision-making, etc.).
• Multi-Agent System Design (Agent collaboration mechanisms and protocols across single or multi-domains, agent discovery, role negotiation, and trust establishment, etc.).
• Standardization and Interoperability (define protocols for agent interaction and semantic understanding, align with 3GPP, ETSI ISG ENI, and IETF efforts on agent frameworks).