6G mobile network requirements and technical feasibility study

The sixth generation (6G) mobile network is envisaged to be commercially deployed around 2030, which will profoundly change people's lifestyles and accelerate the digitalization of society. To ensure that the requirements of 6G can be achieved, it is essential to establish a set of key performance indicators (KPIs). This paper comprehensively assesses the KPIs not only from the service requirements but also from the technical feasibility points of view. Specifically, theoretical derivations of KPIs have been clarified, and numerical evaluations have been conducted with reasonable technical assumptions. Evaluation results show that some KPIs defined from the service requirements can be improved through advanced technologies while some are still challenging for practical implementations, such as Tbps-level peak data rate and 0.1ms user plane latency. In addition, it is also necessary to comply with multiple KPIs for some cases. Furthermore, based on the technical analysis, the potential enabling technologies are outlined and foreseeable implementation challenges as well as possible solutions are presented, which promotes a more reasonable design for 6G mobile network.