Nokia announced it will lead 6G-ANNA, a German national-funded 6G lighthouse project, starting from 1st July 2022. Nokia will collaborate with the 29partners in 6G-ANNA to lead and drive 6G research and standardization.
Funding for 6G-ANNA will comefrom the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF), with an aim ofstrengthening and pushingGerman and European 6G agendas and driving global pre-standardization activities from a German and European perspective. 6G-ANNA is part of the larger “6G Platform German”national initiative andhas a total volume of €38.4million with a duration of threeyears.
Nokia will work closely with the consortium, which includespartners from industry, subject matter experts, start-ups, research institutes and distinguished universities in Germany.
Nokia will play an instrumental role in both 6G-ANNA and Germany’swider 6G ecosystem. Within 6G-ANNA, Nokia will focus on designing an end-to-end 6G architecture and work with other project partners on three key technology areas: 6G access, network of networks, and automation andsimplification.Selected topics such as sub-networks, XR, and real-time digital twinning will be implemented and presented as proof of concepts.
In addition, Nokia will interact with the German ecosystem, including four academic “6G Hubs” with more than 60 university chairs. Beyond Germany, 6G-ANNA aims to interact with other major 6G flagship projects in Europe and the U.S. to shape global 6G standards.
Nokia believes 6G will not onlybuild on existing technologies and systems, but also expand and transform what a network can do. It will fuse the human, physical and digital worlds to liberate our innate human potential. Beyond 6G-ANNA, Nokia is engaging with major industry peers, customers, academia and research institutions globally, spanning the U.S., Europe and APAC to form a common view and direction for 6G.
Peter Merz, Head of Nokia Standards
We are honored to lead 6G-ANNA, the most important government-funded 6G lighthouse project in Germany. While the first 6G networks are not expected to be commercially available before 2030, we are already laying the technical foundation with 5G-Advanced, as well as long-term innovation that will drive 6G developments.
