First International Workshop on 6G Standardization

Date: 14th - 15th July 2023

Venue: Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

In every decade, the world sees a new generation of mobile communication, each offering plethora of services and capabilities unfathomable in the earlier generations. As India embarked upon its own unique 5G (IMT-2020) journey in 2022, the global telecom sector had already initiated strides towards creating 6G or sixth-generation communication technology as the next big thing on the communication horizon. Despite being at a concept stage, 6G is already making waves with its promise of unified human-machine and machine-machine connectivity and offers a glimpse of what lies in store for the world.

In 2015, ITU published the ‘IMT Vision – Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT for 2020 and beyond’ commonly called the 5G vision document, which intensified research activities around the world and finally led to the 5G technology as we see it today. It is expected that ITU’s vision document for IMT-2030 (popularly called the ‘6G’) will be released in 2023 and will play a similar role for 6G research the way ITU’s 5G vision document played for 5G research. Further IMT-2030 vision will kickstart the standardization process for 6G.  

Thus, this is an opportune time for different stakeholders, viz. government, academia, industry, etc., to come together and start research in the technologies which may define 6G. Also, as India is on the cusp of an entrepreneurial revolution, the emergence of several small companies, start-ups, and academia in niche areas is opening new doors for positioning India on the global Digi-com technology landscape. This brimming start-up ecosystem is an added strength of the 6G technology initiative. 6G offers a mammoth opportunity for India to leverage its capability and lead in the development of the 6G vision, technology, and standards globally. It is the right time for India to tap into this opportunity to achieve the “Atmanirbhar” objectives.

To capitalize on favourable conditions and take lead in the development of the 6G technology ecosystem, it is sine qua non to start the 6G pre-standardization activity at different national and international work groups. Further, a holistic ecosystem is needed so as to provide a leg up to the Indian industry through awareness and requirement building, validation, and acceleration of the product to the market.

In light of the above, the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) is planning an ‘International workshop on 6G standardization’ in association with Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI), various startups, industries, and academic institutes in the field.

The said workshop will provide an exceptional opportunity for the research community to meet industry representatives and standardization experts to discuss ways and means to

• Increase collaboration in 6G research and development
• Enhance Indian participation and contribution in standardization at ITU, 3GPP, IEEE, etc.
• Present startups with the opportunities provided by 6G for new product development

This workshop will provide a unique opportunity to speakers and delegates from varied backgrounds to deliver talks and participate in panel discussions.