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Sustainability and sustainable development are topics that are increasingly addressed in the ICT sector including wireless networks. Yet, their interpretations vary a great deal depending on the person without a commonly agreed approach. This paper presents an overview of sustainability and sustainable development in the context of ICTs and wireless networks highlighting the urgency of introducing sustainability principles at all levels and stages of ICT technology development. The paper presents a way forward to adopt sustainability principles into future technology design considering the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental sustainability perspectives. A change in mindset is urgently needed and all stakeholders need to act in their own capacity as well as collaboratively to make the wireless networks and their use truly sustainable without green-washing. New metrics need to be defined and measured to respond to growing concerns as today’s metrics, such as total consumed mobile data are far from sustainable. Time to act is now as the design criteria for the future sustainable 6G are defined in the next years.

The goal of sustainability and the required sustainable development to reach this goal call for a significant renewal of operations to solve fundamental challenges facing societies. The role of ICT and wireless communications is critical in realizing the twin transition of green and digital. The wireless and mobile communications community has taken sustainability as the key goal driving the whole R&D of the next generation of mobile communication networks (6G) aiming at deployment in 2030s. Understanding the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental sustainability together with the concrete United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) with specific targets and indicators are fundamental for 6G R&D but their linkages are not yet clear. This paper investigates sustainability and sustainable development in the context of 6G. A special focus is on the management of the fundamental natural resource for wireless communications, namely the radio spectrum whose management keeps getting ever more complex. The paper highlights the role of new sharing-based spectrum governance models, to rapidly respond to the needs of the changing world towards a sustainable future.

The ongoing Industry 4.0 transformation places significant pressures on how businesses create and capture value. Technological advancements such as next-generation mobile communications are reshaping the business ecosystem of Industry 4.0, resulting in emerging business opportunities for new players, such as local operators, to collaborate and compete with mobile communications companies that are implementing I4.0. These changes raise the need to explore emerging business opportunities concerning the digitalization of future factories. New data and connectivity services are introduced to serve the needs of rapidly increasing machine-type communications that rely on connectivity, primarily through the fifth generation (5G) mobile solutions provided by local operators. Thus, this paper outlines the potential value configurations for data and connectivity solutions by identifying, matching, and bridging the utilizable resources and addressable needs within the factory processes. The research applies an exploratory approach and uses the Gioia method to analyze qualitative data of a single case. The study follows the connectivity-content-context-commerce typology (4C) of Internet business models to structure, analyze, and classify the identified needs and resources in future factories from the perspective of the local operator. The findings show that the content layer of 4C business model typology is the most dominant among data and connectivity-based needs and resources of future factories. The paper contributes by presenting four alternative value configurations for digitalization for local operators in the future factory context: the product, component, platform, and complementary businesses. The results suggest content- and context-specific businesses carries foremost business potential for local operators, however quantitative validation will bring fruitful research avenues. Multiple case studies and different data collection methods may also be considered in future studies.

Funding Information: Funding: This research was supported and funded by Business Finland in the 5G VIIMA project (grant no. 6430/31/2018). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Network slicing is a key enabler for providing new services to industry verticals. In order to enable network slice provisioning, it is important to study the network slice type allocation for different device types in a real industrial case. Furthermore, the costs of the required virtualization infrastructure need to be analyzed for various cloud deployment scenarios. In this paper, a cost model for the virtualization infrastructure needed for network slice provisioning is developed and subsequently applied to a real smart factory. In the model, slice types and devices are mapped such that each factory device is provisioned with one or more slice types, as required. The number of devices to be supported per slice type is forecasted for 2021–2030, and the total costs of ownership, costs per slice type, and costs for every slice type, for each device are calculated. The results are analyzed for three cloud deployment scenarios: local, distributed, and centralized. The centralized scenario was found to have thelowest cost. Moreover, sensitivity analysis is conducted by varying the device growth, the number of factories, the level of isolation between network slices, and resource overbooking. The resulting evaluation and cost breakdown can help stakeholders select a suitable deployment scenario, gauge their investments, and exercise suitable pricing.

Executive summary Many visions of 6G and the evolution of data rates in wireless systems in general are directing their vectors toward Tbps communications by 2030. This target, with the important goal of sustainable development in the future world, will inevitably lead to many questions within the RF community about whether this will be feasible at all, and how. As the same question is also raised by other experts from various fields, this paper will examine the challenges and opportunities before us from many perspectives. It is evident that 6G will not only be extremely high-speed communications. For example, the existing wireless infrastructure and new solutions in ultra-low power communications will also live and evolve, further enriching the fabric of wireless systems serving an even wider spread of applications. 6G is also expected to merge communications and sensing in a new way, and the wide bandwidth needed for data will also benefit many high-precision sensing applications. Multi-use, scalability, and energy efficiency will be of the utmost importance, and the tradeoffs will be neither straightforward nor easy to implement, or even understand, without a deep dive into key technologies. These are evolving mostly from the well-established solutions in the market, but at the same time, the need for something completely new is evident. The gap between radio and optical communications is also narrowing, potentially answering some of the concerns. This white paper will not only discuss the opportunities but also the serious challenges that are foreseeable in the technology community. These may slow down, or in the worst case even block, some of the development paths. How we cope with such threats and use the existing opportunities in the engineering process from early research to final products in the current landscape is one of the key questions that will be asked by the RF community. At the end of this paper, a list of refined questions will be shared. These are not for the RF community alone, but for experts working in various disciplines and stakeholders that are together building the future of 6G enabled by radio technologies.

With digitalization and the emergence of disruptive technologies, organizations should re-structure their business models within their ecosystems to achieve sustainable revenue and value creation. This paper presents a business model configuration for ecosystem contexts by using the port ecosystem as an example. The paper concludes with the 4C business model typology and the role of players in the port ecosystem., Journal of Business Models, Vol. 9 Núm. 1 (2021): Journal of Business Models, Special Issue, Selected Conference Submissions 2020

Societies are experiencing large-scale transformation through digitalization programs covering all private and public sectors. Digitalization advances also the growing demands of sustainable development, in which nations and cities all over the world have set ambitious targets. Transportation is one the cornerstone verticals of cities and has attracted wide attention from various stakeholders developing services and solutions for digitalization. In general, ICT solutions are in the core of digitalization and trailblazing technologies have been developed to enable modern transportation services. 5G technology covering wireless connectivity, IoT sensor technology, distributed edge computing, artificial intelligence, high power computing and service platforms offers numerous opportunities to the development of sophisticated smart transportation services. However, to adopt a pervasive approach for the evolvement of digital transportation services, it is important to examine the system level point of view. Developing occasional services for various transport modes without targeted inter-operability of services, the result of digitalization of transportation can be extremely fragmented. This paper aims to highlight the top-down angle of research and development of the smart transportation system. The development requires seamless co-operation of researchers and specialists of transport systems, urban design and planning and wireless technologies to integrate transport infrastructure, 5G wireless communication infrastructure and traffic management systems to enable advanced digital services for all transport modes. Moreover, this article introduces the stakeholders recognized from transport systems, urban design and planning and wireless technologies. The role of each stakeholder is described a like.

Purpose: As an emerging field, the fifth generation, 5G, mobile communications technologies related business models have only been discussed to a limited extent in the literature, and platform business models in general have seldom been examined. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how to understand and capture the evolution of future platform-based ecosystemic business models in 5G? Approach: With roots in economics and engineering, this study has an intrinsically dualistic perspective to platform business utilizing the 4C ecosystemic framework and the as a Service (aaS) digital service business model typologies. This research follows a cyclical process of research-oriented action research, collecting data in two phases from the future-oriented World Cafe workshops held at Nokia RadioActive! user group event in Espoo in November 2017 and 6G Wireless Summit in Levi in March 2019. Findings: The paper uncovers the extended ecosystemic platform architecture for the business model and ecosystem research consisting of components, interfaces, data and algorithms. Value: We are currently lacking a coherent approach for researching platform-based ecosystemic business models as the extant discussions tend to focus either on ecosystem(ic) features of business models or platform business models that, however, share common characteristics. The study adopts a value-based and service-dominant lens focused on business model research at the ecosystemic level. For the first time, the study introduces the extended ecosystemic platform architecture, investigating how this business framework can enable the transformation of the 5G.

Sustainability has entered all aspects of life, calling for an active approach from the wireless and mobile communications community to help in solving fundamental challenges facing societies. Societal, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability have become increasingly important design criteria in developing future technologies, along with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) framework that sets specific goals and targets to be achieved by 2030. The role of mobile communications is important in supporting nations and organizations in meeting the UN SDGs in a timely manner, but the whole ICT sector itself, with its critical role as the backbone of society, can create a significant sustainability burden. Research on the next-generation mobile communication networks (6G) has started, aiming at first deployments in 2030, in a new era where sustainability defines its development. Therefore, sustainability, especially through the UN SDGs, and the future 6G wireless networks, cannot be treated in isolation, but a clear connection between them is urgently needed. This paper extends from traditional green communications and energy efficiency considerations in wireless communications to establishing a close connection between 6G and the triple bottom line of economic sustainability, societal sustainability, and environmental sustainability. The paper outlines open research challenges for sustainable 6G development and provides a set of research questions encouraging especially the researchers and engineers in the wireless and mobile communications community to address to realize a sustainable future.

Local 5G networks have gained increasing attention in the recent years, allowing different stakeholders to establish local and often private networks within a specific facility, such as a factory. These local networks can serve a variety of user groups with versatile needs. The deployment of the local 5G networks is fully dependent on spectrum availability in the given location, which in turn depends on the underlaying regulations and varies for the different stakeholders involved and between countries. The link between emerging new business opportunities and the spectrum availability considering different stakeholders is of great interest from strategic management viewpoint. This paper presents an analysis of recent 5G spectrum awarding decisions considering how they connect with emerging local 5G networks from different stakeholder viewpoints. The analysis reveals how different countries have prepared for the new business opportunity arising from local 5G networks in their spectrum awarding decisions. The analysis also quantifies the spectrum availability for establishing local 5G networks considering different stakeholder perspectives. The findings indicate that the variety of approaches taken by the regulators in their spectrum decisions keeps increasing and new local spectrum licenses are emerging especially in the latest spectrum awards. The identified diverging approaches in different countries impact the business opportunities within the country as well as for export of solutions, which in turn can influence the competitiveness of countries differently.

Mobile communication research is increasingly addressing the use of 5G in verticals, which has led to the emergence of local and often private 5G networks. At the same time, research on 6G has started, with a bold goal of building a strong linkage between 6G and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Both of these developments call for a highly multi-disciplinary approach covering the inter-related perspectives of business, regulation and technology. This paper summarizes recent advances in using 5G to serve vertical sectors’ needs and describes a path towards sustainable 6G considering business, regulation and technology viewpoints. By focusing on key trends, the research summarizes four alternative scenarios for the futures business of 6G and considers related regulatory and technology aspects. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding the complex relations of business, regulation and technology perspectives and the role of ecosystems in both 5G in verticals and ultimately in the development of sustainable 6G to bring together stakeholders to solve long-term sustainability problems.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to build possible future scenarios for indoor connectivity in a venue such as a university campus and build alternative value network configurations (VNCs) defining different local network deployment options, focused on the Finnish telecom market. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, Schoemaker’s scenario planning method (Schoemaker, 1995) is used to construct future scenarios and the VNC method of Casey et al. (2010) is used to build alternative VNCs. The paper studies the Aalto University campus network for current end-user data usage demand and the existing technology used in meeting the end-user needs and forecasts the demand for the next five years to understand the need for 5G. Findings: This research concludes that with the provision of local spectrum licenses, there is an opportunity for venue owners to take the role of 5G local operator on the venue premises. Furthermore, it enables venue owners to collaborate with the incumbent mobile network operators (MNOs) in a neutral host model and provide venue-specific connectivity services. Research limitations/implications: A detailed economic assessment for the network deployment in the campus is considered for future study. Originality/value: Considering the provision for local spectrum licenses, this paper has taken a unique attempt in identifying the future scenarios for local 5G network operations. It provides a strategic direction for the venue owners in adopting 5G technology and whether to make 5G or buy 5G from MNOs.

The assessment of future business models’ performance deviates from that of existing business models. This paper investigates and develops a framework to approach the assessment of future business models by looking at the expected outcomes of business models: scalability, replicability, and economic, environmental, and societal stainability. The framework is applied to a single case study of a port that is developing, based on 5G connectivity and data platform, novel digital business models. The analysis indicates that scalability and replicability stemming from data and the use of artificial intelligence influence especially economic and environmental sustainability. The paper contributes to our understanding on the relationships between and emergence of scalability, replicability and sustainability in the context of future business models.

Mobile networks are the digitalization backbone of modern society. This paper reviews the platform-based business models identified for 5G mobile operators and provides a strategy-technology -framework to map their business model configurations.

Cognitive radio (CR) was coined to address evolving user needs two decades ago. Since then, it also has been considered a way to mitigate perceived spectrum scarcity in various application areas. In this article, the status of military CR research is assessed through a systematic literature review of 193 articles, from 2013 to 2020, using IEEE thematic topics, technology readiness levels, as well as comprehensive capability meta-model as analytical frameworks. The annual distribution of military CR research indicates continuing interest. The military CR research seems to be prolific on topics like waveform design and security, not forgetting a steady interest in CR networking topics. Significantly low numbers of papers address applications, services, and standardization. In general, military CR research seemed sporadic and scattered. Our data suggest that a transition from individual techniques, component-level subsystem research in the direction of systems engineering approach, and system-level studies has not yet happened, and the overall TRLs remain low. The absence of publicly articulated comprehensive treatment of the notion of military cognitive radio system is graphic and has led to disjointed, scattered research at the subsystem level.

Foreword We are thrilled to welcome you to explore this second edition of our 6G Waves magazine! When we published the first magazine in early March, none of us at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) at the University of Oulu fully grasped what lies ahead for us as individuals and experts, and as members of communities and the society. COVID-19 has since then made remote work a default at our university, limiting international contacts and face-to-face collaboration because of tight restrictions for gathering and travel, which are still in place. Yet, our 6G Flagship research program has managed to be highly productive both in scientific work and in creating impact on multiple levels, as our results show. In just two and a half years, our experts have published more than 1,100 peer-reviewed scientific articles. This magazine highlights our latest results, collaborations, and the expertise of innovators who are taking 6G research to where no one has gone before. You can also discover how we contribute to 5G adoption and beyond 5G development with our collaborators. We are proud of the new set of 6G white papers that we published in June. They illustrate the complementary views and visions of 250 global experts who answered our open call and joined the thematic expert groups. The white papers introduced in this magazine show the wide-scale importance of coupling research and technology development with sustainability and business, with key verticals as pathways to future sustainable systems and services. The white papers also discuss how optimal 6G solutions will rely on various stakeholder groups’ early engagement to create a real societal impact towards 2030. We have adopted new means of collaboration during this unusual year while we have also strengthened our expertise in maneuvering virtual platforms and tools. Next year, these competencies will help us organize two major international events — 2021 Joint EuCNC & 6G Summit in June and IEEE PIMRC 2021 in September. We will utilize our research results and recent practical learnings to create intriguing 6G-focused program for both events. Our global 6G research effort necessitates highly skilled experts. We are continuously looking for new innovative individuals to join us in fulfilling our ambitious goals, which we introduce in further detail in this magazine. Industry is also getting ready towards 6G era. The first EU Horizon 6G projects led by industry are starting early next year. Next G Alliance founded by American industry and operators, aiming to steer development of 6G, was founded in the US in October. Thus, now would be a perfect time for companies to join our expanding 6G ecosystem to tackle the challenges of future systems together. With this 6G Waves magazine, we wish you a safe and productive end of the year 2020! Jukka Riekki Professor, Dean of Faculty of ITEE, University of Oulu 6G Flagship, Strategic Research Area Leader, Distributed Computing

6G vision and the industry consensus of underlying technology enablers have come a long way and will shape the new access, networking, and service domains in future mobile communications. These novel features promise countless opportunities for service innovation and business efficiencies, creating an unprecedented impact on multiple vertical sectors. 6G will connect worlds in novel and innovative ways — the physical and digital worlds will be deeply intertwined in real time, human biological systems will be seamlessly coupled, and at the same time, there will be a new human sensory and cognitive dimension across the scenarios of the 6G experience. Key technology-enabling themes to be explored will include the pervasive leverage of machine learning and artificial intelligence across architectural domains to flexibly define the air interface, as well as service management and orchestration in the 6G “network of networks” topology and platform ecosystem. Terahertz (THz) research is one of the prominent topics, utilizing spectral bands of above 100 GHz for both communications and sensing purposes, thereby enabling connectivity data speeds in the Terabit/s range. We foresee millions of sub-networks and devices becoming the network in conjunction with extreme performance attributes in terms of both sub-millisecond latency, high reliability and time-sensitive determinism, and advanced ways to assure security, privacy, and trust. In line with 6G vision and technology enablers, developing products, services, and vertical applications for the future digitized society in the 6G era requires a multidisciplinary approach and a redefinition of how we create, deliver, and consume network resources, data, and services for both communications and sensing purposes. This development will change and disrupt the traditional business models and ecosystem roles of digital service providers, as well as open the market for key stakeholders in the 6G era like digital service operators, cloud operators, and resource brokers. Furthermore, sustainable development is a highly complex area that will call for major changes in industrialized society in the long run. This white paper discusses the unprecedented opportunities to enable and empower multiple stakeholders to more actively participate in the future 6G ecosystem via novel sustainable open ecosystemic business models with flexible integration of long tail services with tailored performance attributes. This research adopts a qualitative scenario planning method, portraying three scenario themes resulting in a total of 12 scenarios for the futures of the 6G business. We present both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, and assess their probability, plausibility, and preferability. By focusing on key trends, their interactions, and irreducible uncertainties, scenario building generates perspectives for the futures within which alternative 6G business strategies have been developed and assessed for a traditional incumbent mobile network operator, and a novel 6G digital service provider stemming from redefined sustainable economics. Value capture in the 6G era requires an understanding of the dynamics of platforms and ecosystems. The results indicate that to reach some of the preferred futures, we should attend to the privacy and security issues related to business and regulation needs: public/governmental, corporate, community, and user perspectives on and aims of governance; ecosystem configuration related to users, decentralized business models, and platforms; user empowerment; and the role of service location-specificity.

Executive Summary In many places all over the world, rural and remote areas lack proper connectivity. This has led to an increasing digital divide. These areas may have low population density, low incomes, difficult terrain, and non-existent infrastructure, lacking a power grid, for example. This makes them less attractive places in which to invest and operate connectivity networks. 6G could be the first mobile radio generation that truly aims to close the digital divide. However, to do so, special requirements and challenges must be considered from the beginning of the design process. The aim of this white paper is to discuss requirements and challenges and indicate the related identified research topics that must be solved in 6G. This white paper first provides a generic discussion, illustrates some facts, and discusses targets set in international bodies for rural and remote connectivity and the digital divide. The paper then delves into technical details, i.e. into the solutions space. First, a background overview is provided, followed by a closer elaboration of individual elements, i.e. terrestrial back-haul networks, terrestrial back-haul solutions, non-terrestrial solutions, the need for local operations, and frequency spectrum issues. Each technical section ends with a discussion and then lists the highlights of the identified 6G challenges and research ideas.

Executive summary The commercial launch of 6G communications systems and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) are both targeted for 2030. 6G communications are expected to boost global growth and productivity, create new business models and transform many aspects of society. The UN SDGs are a way of framing opportunities and challenges of a desirable future world and cover topics as broad as ending poverty, building gender equality, the fight against climate change and developing smart cities. The relationship between these potentially mutually reinforcing forces is currently under-defined. Building on the vision for 6G, and a review of megatrends, ongoing studies on the relation of mobile communications to the UN SDGs and existing indicators, a novel linkage between 6G and the UN SDGs is proposed. This linkage is via a set of indicators. This white paper also initiates work on a new set of 6G related indicators to guide research on 6G systems. The novel linkage is built on the envisaged three-fold role of 6G as 1) a provider of services to help steer and support communities and countries towards reaching the UN SDGs, 2) a measuring tool for data collection to help the reporting of indicators with hyperlocal granularity, and 3) a reinforcer of new ecosystems based on 6G technology enablers and 6G networks of networks to be developed in line with the UN SDGs which incorporates future mobile communication technologies which will be available in 2030. Related challenges are also identified. An action plan is presented along with prioritized focus areas within the mobile communication sector technology and industry evolution to best support the achievement of the UN SDGs.

The datafication of society is likely to increase in the upcoming 5G world and legal safeguards are necessary to ensure our privacy rights are protected. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze some of the unique characteristics of 5G and how the EU General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) stands as the last legal guardian against unwanted personal data violations. With the increase of data transfer speed and reliability comes the risk of privacy deterioration as 5G interlaces with ubiquitous computing creating a socio‐technical all‐encompassing global web of personal digital data extraction, storage, and transfer that will directly impact the way society organizes itself. The focus of this article is on identifying and understanding the possible threats to privacy protection that may be encountered in the deployment of 5G. Due to its low latency, reliability, high capacity, energy efficiency, and speedy data transmissions, 5G will directly impact the way we interact, communicate, work, and participate in society. For this breakthrough to take place a new generation of communication infrastructure is being designed, created, and implemented in many urban areas in Europe, North East Asia, North America, and other regions of the world. In addition, more intangible elements, such as software, protocols, and standards are being put in place. Not only the volume, velocity, and variety of digital data will increase in the 5G world, but also the value. However, in the fast approaching datafied world, privacy is rapidly becoming a cherished commodity rather than an inherited human right.

Spectrum management plays a key role in the deployment of new wireless technologies. Regulators in the 5G era have introduced a variety of spectrum management approaches that allow the deployment of new cellular networks including traditional exclusively nationwide licensing, local licensing and unlicensed approaches involving varying levels of spectrum sharing. The upcoming 6G era in the 2030s will face new challenges resulting from the ever-increasing variety of considered spectrum bands for 6G with drastically different propagation characteristics and the increasing fragmentation of spectrum management approaches. This paper provides an overview of spectrum management for mobile communication networks including the most recent 5G spectrum decisions. The paper discusses the role of spectrum sharing in the upcoming 6G era and related enabling technologies. The paper opens the door for 6G spectrum discussions with an emphasis on what is different in 6G while taking into account the challenges arising from the underlying regulatory environment.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in satisfying the spectrum demand for communications beyond 5G (B5G) at a global level. However, in such a large and diverse country as Mexico, the implementation of B5G wireless networks towards 6G will require new spectrum regulation policies that also take into account the particular aspects of the country, such as population density, geographic diversity, as well as social and economic issues. This paper discusses the asymmetries of the urban and rural scenarios of mobile communications and examines their relationship to the current status of the spectrum for 5G mobile communications in Mexico. Then, it explores the spectrum-related challenges that must be overcome to attain ambitious goals beyond 5G technologies. Thus showing the necessity of novel spectrum allocation mechanisms that consider the myriad of scenarios and their different demands in similar countries, in order to satisfy the requirements of B5G wireless communications and networks.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are becoming an increasingly important theme for researchers in multiple fields to investigate. In this paper we look at the process of how 6G researchers and other experts identified ways in which mobile communications is linked with the UN SDGs while writing a new 6G white paper on the topic. In a team of around 40 members consisting of representatives of academia, industry, and governmental bodies, we developed a sustainable vision for 6G, identified linkages between 6G mobile communications and the UN SDGs, and came up with a preliminary plan of action for how to reach the set goals, all published in a white paper. It is to be noted that the technological development for 6G is very much in its infancy, thus we concentrated our work on mobile communications in general and looked at the possible linkages between 6G and the UN SDG’s from the perspective of what could be and what should be. In this paper we look into the detailed operations of the expert group and describe the mapping process for finding the linkage between the UN SDGs and 6G in a way that may guide other researchers in related endeavours. The aim of this paper is threefold: 1) to briefly present the relevant linkages between the UN SDGs and mobile communications, 2) to look at the process of identifying the relevant UN SDGs for mobile communications research from a theoretical perspective, and 3) to formulate a working mapping process to be widely adopted. We will describe the background, i.e. the findings of the white paper expert group, and then move on to describing the process itself, and finally present a mapping process to be adopted.