The 11th Brooklyn 6G Summit marks 6G’s transition from research to standardization
With the changing autumn weather of New York City as a backdrop, some of the most creative minds in the communications industry gathered to mark an equally dramatic transition in their field.
As the wind picked up and the falling leaves changed colors, this year’s Brooklyn 6G Summit, hosted by Nokia and the NYU WIRELESS research center, focused on the undergoing 6G shift from the research to standardization stage.
For the 11th time, one of the most distinguished gatherings of the communications industry was held on the campus of NYU Tandon School of Engineering and this year’s sense of transition was fittingly reflected in the summit’s theme: “6G – From vision to action.”
Accordingly, the focus was on a wide range of 6G topics, including AI/ML, new mid-band spectrum, energy efficiency, security, the integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks and more.
A series of keynote addresses, lively panels and physical demonstrations showcased these key technologies that will define the next era of advanced wireless communications and will figure prominently in the first commercial 6G deployments by the end of the decade.
Ted Rappaport, founder of NYU WIRELESS and co-organizer of the event (left), with Nishant Batra, Nokia Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at their joint welcome address. Photo by Elena Olivo.
Nokia Chief Strategy and Technology Officer Nishant Batra laid out Nokia’s Technology Strategy for 2030 and beyond, including the need for cognitive platforms that deliver intelligent, adaptive services across industries and ecosystems.
He stressed the importance of collaboration to develop 6G value creation and described how Nokia was placed at the center of the transformation into a hyper-digital future that would revolutionize domains such as healthcare, the automotive industry and the environment.
“Telecom must capitalize on the unfolding digital opportunity,” he said. “Our journey toward 6G is not just about faster speeds or lower latencies. It’s about preparing for a future where networks will think, learn and evolve, creating a new foundation for digital ecosystems.”
In his recorded greeting, Nokia President and CEO Pekka Lundmark struck a similar tone.
“From day one, 6G will offer an evolved single architecture that brings immediate operational and economic advantages to operators, enterprises and developers,” he said. “Consider the possibilities: Collaborative robots, immersive holographic experiences, mass digital twinning, cognitive sensing, extreme autonomation and brand-new services and applications enabled by 6G.”
Open House in Brooklyn
The Brooklyn gathering has traditionally served as a harbinger for communication technologies, applications and services. What began as a conference focused on 5G technology was now, in its 11th iteration, firmly focused on the 6G era and how it will fuse the digital, physical and human worlds, redefining how we live, work and take care of our planet.
Some 300 participants, including 65 speakers and panelists, attended the three-day event at the New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn, providing an eclectic gathering of academia, industry analysts, media, service providers, equipment vendors and startups from various corners of the telecom industry. In addition, hundreds of participants from around the world joined the live event broadcast on IEEE.tv.
The participants included a wide swath of customers, partners, engineers and innovators, as well as representatives from NTT DOCOMO, KDDI, T-Mobile, SK Telecom, Dell, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, MediaTek, American Tower and many more. Speakers from the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) also participated in the event.
“Ten years from now, we will see a world where AI is natively used, robots are everywhere and advanced autonomous technologies such as self-driving cars are widely used,” predicted Takaaki Sato, Chief Technology Officer for NTT DOCOMO.
One of the main takeaways was the need for harmonized 6G standard since there was a realization that global fragmentation would not be helpful for the industry.
There was also a wide array of demonstrations of the latest access technologies, including 6G Mobility Metaverse, AI in 6G and a network digital twin for mining.
In a new twist, this year’s summit also featured an Open House, where NYU WIRELESS students showcased their work with a wide range of cutting-edge devices such as drones and 3D printers.
Working together
One of the main themes raised at the summit was the need for greater collaboration between industry and academia to shape the future 6G-era together. A pair of interesting panels highlighted this.
The first was the 6G at universities panel in which professors presented their case to have greater input.
“When you are an industry and you are doing standards or you have roadmaps, you kind of tend to lose the bigger picture as to what is happening in five years,” said Monisha Ghosh, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame. “Having academic research collaborate with you and take the longer view is very important.”
The second panel was the newly formed “Graduate Students Panel” in which PhD candidates gave their perspective on the future of telecommunications that they will be dealing with in their careers.
But before diving into the future, there was also room to celebrate the past as the summit honored several trailblazers in telecommunication technology. The Pioneer Award was presented to Vic Hayes and Bruce Tuch, the inventors of Wi-Fi, and the Lifetime Academic Achievement Award was bestowed upon David Goodman from NYU WIRELESS.
Bruce Tuch (left) and David Goodman received the awards. Photo by Elena Olivo.
Amitava Ghosh, a Bell Labs Fellow and the co-organizer of this event since its inception in 2014, along with Ted Rappaport, founder of NYU WIRELESS, said it all added up to a powerful path forward.
“6G is no longer a distant vision. This summit serves as the pivotal convergence point to bring that vision to life,” Ghosh said. “Focusing on the seamless integration of human, digital and physical realms, this event is set to redefine how we think about connectivity and sustainability, creating pathways for future networks to transform everyday life and drive industrial innovation.”
Amitava Ghosh addressing the event. Photo by Clark Jones.
