1. Futurewei Technologies, Inc.
Why the Internet Needs to Evolve, and How?
Richard Li
Chief Scientist and VP, Network Technologies,
Futurewei, USA
June 1st, 2022
2. Page 2
ICT Technology Evolution: What’s in 2030s?
1G 2G 3G 4G 5G
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
Wireless
Evolution
Industrial
Revolution
1st Power
Weaving
Loom
1st
Assembly
Line
1st
PLC
1784 1870 1969
1961
Packet
Switching
TCP/IP
Paper IPv4 IPv6
1974 1981 1995
Internet
Evolution
Industry 4.0
2000s
2030s
?
?
?
3. 3
6G is not yet defined, but …
❖ Its visions are being set up, and use cases are being identified
• ITU-T Focus Group on Network 2030
• Next-G Alliance, USA
• 6G Flagship, Finland,
• 5G/6G Innovation Center, University of Surrey, UK
• Europe Hexa-X
• China IMT-2030 Promotion Group
• Many, many others
❖ Its enabling technologies are under way
• Basic Technology: Physics, Material, Biology, Chemistry, Semi-Conductor
• Radio Technology: TeraHtz, RIS, OAM, IHR
• Networking Technology: New Architecture, New Communication Methods , New Protocols
– Omni-Convergence and Reconvergence
– High Precision Communications
– Qualitative Communications and/or Semantic Communications
– Heterogenous Networks: Heterogenous Access, Heterogenous Control, Heterogenous Networking Resources and Power
❖ All that 5G promised but not delivered are expected to be supported by 6G
❖ 6G will ultimately rely on enabling technologies: neither over-promised nor under engineered
4. Page 4
Some use cases require convergence of heterogenous networks
Layer 3
Field Devices
OCN
Operation and Control Network
SCADA
PLC Controller
Internet
Convergence of Spatial and Terrestrial Networks Convergence of OT and IT
Trunking and Head-End Feed Communications on the Move
Backhauling and Tower-Feed Multi-Path Forwarding
IT World
OT Garden
IP
5. Page 5
Some use cases require more than connectivity; KPI guarantee is a must!!!
Latency (ms)
Packet Loss Ratio
0
100
-3
10
-4
10
-5
10
-6
10
-7
10
-8
10
-9
10
-10
10
References:
ITU-T Focus Group on Network 2030 Deliverables
3GPP TS 22.261 V15.5.0 (2018-07)
3GPP TS 22.261 V17.3.0 (2020-07)
3GPP TR 22.804 V16.2.0 (2018-12)
3GPP TS 22.104 V17.3.0 (2020-07)
better
better
50
10
1
20
Electricity
Distribution
Holographic
Teleport
Remote
Control
Tactile
Internet
Intelligent
Transport
Robots
High Voltage
Electricity
Distribution
Industrial
Automation
6. 6
Some use cases are mission-critical, and even life-critical
Collision-Avoidance Distance
Autonomous Driving Cloud Driving
Local Driving
Decision Point
Local
Sensory Input
Remote
Contextual Advisory
Local
Sensory Input
Remote Driving
Decision Point
Latency
Packet Loss Packet Loss
Latency
Packet loss is a serious issue!
If a packet is lost, its retransmission will triple the latency
Maximal End-to-End Latency = 30 ms (3GPP TS 22.261 version 15.5.0 Release 15)
7. Page 7
Some use cases are subject to motion-to-photon time
/VR
Framing Streaming
Decoding
Display
Encoding
Network
Transport
Motion-to-Photon Time: Total 20 ms
5-7 ms
Source: Samsung
8. 8
Everything in the ICT sector needs to go green!
UE, Antenna, Backhaul,Metro, Backbone, Cloud, Computing, Storage, …
If the ICT sector should decrease its emissions in line
with other parts of the economy, it would have to:
reduce its CO2 emissions by 42% by 2030, 72% by
2040, and 91% by 2050 and net zero by 2050.
Ref: Freitag, C., Berners-Lee, M., Widdicks, K., Knowles, B., Blair, G. S., & Friday, A. (2021).
The real climate and transformative impact of ICT: A critique of estimates, trends, and
regulations. Patterns (New York, N.Y.), 2(9), 100340.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2021.100340
Technologies at prototype or demonstration stage today contribute almost 35% of the
emissions reductions to 2070; a further 40% comes from technologies that are at early
stages of adoption.
Mature
Early
Adoption
Demonstration
Large
Prototype
Net-zero
emissions
IEA (2020). Clean Energy Innovation. https://www.iea.org/reports/clean-energy-innovation.
Net-zero emissions is not viable without a lot more innovation
- 35
- 30
- 25
- 20
- 15
- 10
- 5
0
2019 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070
GtCO
2
/yr
9. Page 9
In a nutshell, 6G needs enabling technologies for:
omni-convergence, KPI guarantee, and social sustainability
Omni-Convergence
Social Sustainability
KPI Guarantee
In-Time Guarantee
On-Time Guarantee
Lossless Networking
Green Addressing
Green Routing
Green Forwarding
Green Transport
Green Architecture
Convergence of Spatial (Non-Terrestrial) and Terrestrial Networks
Convergence of ICT Networks and OT Networks
Convergence of Physical and Digital Universes
Convergence of Computing and Communications
Convergence of Sensing and Communications
Convergence of Intelligence and Communications
10. 10
Manifest Payload
Addressing Contract
Addressing (for omni-convergence)
- Free-Choice Addressing
IPv4, IPv6, LISP, Semantic Addresses, Flexible Addressing System,
Many others
- Mix and Match
Contract (for KPI guarantee, User Intent, User Programmability)
General format: A sequence of “Condition -> Action (Meta-Data)”
- In-Time Guarantee, On-Time Guarantee, Lossless Networking
- User Programmable Networking,
Payload
- Native Stream of Bits and Bytes (compatible with the existing
ones)
- Qualitative Payload
- Significance-Based
- Semantics-Based
- Entropy-Based
Reference: New IP: A Data Packet Framework to Evolve the Internet, Invited Paper, IEEE HPSR 2020
A new technology is being developed to meet all these requirements:
Omni-Convergence, KPI Guarantee and Social Sustainability
New IP Packet Format:
❖ New IP can be deployed within an autonomous system
(AS) in the existing framework.
❖ New IP connects OT networks and their terminals that
have not been connected to the Internet yet.
❖ Examples of New IP Deployment:
• Industrial Internet, Industrial IoT, Industry 4.0
• PROFINET Networks Class B and Class C
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• Metropolitan Networks for High-Precision Communications
• IP Mobile Backhaul for 5G/B5G uRLLC and mMTC
• Virtualized Industrial Automation Pyramid
• Autonomous Driving and Remote Cloud Driving
• Connection between any computing sites in 5G/6G
❖ New Challenges and New Research Topic
• Algorithms
• Complexity Analysis
• Semantic Addressing and Routing
• Network Processors
11. Page 11
N6
Pre
AGG
AGG Core
5G Virtualized
Control Plane
Core Cloud/CDN
(Industrial APPs, NFs)
Edge Cloud
(Industrial APPs, NFs)
5G-UPF
5G-UPF
New IP
(from gNB to Core)
New IP
OT:
Industrial
Automation
Vehicular
(V2X,
V2V)
New IP
IPv6
IPv4
ICT
ICT
F1
FlexE
Domain
FlexE
Inside
ACCESS
CSR
5GC
Examples of Deployment for 5G/B5G/6G
N3 Internet
New IP
(from gNB to MEC)
12. 12
Concluding Remarks
▪ New IP is motivated by solving problems as commonly found in:
• Industrial machine-type communications (Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet, Industrial IoT, Industrial Automation)
• Emerging applications such as holographic type communications
• IP Mobile Backhaul Transport for 5G/B5G/6G uRLLC, mMTC, especially when Connecting Industrial Networks
• Emerging Industry Verticals (driverless vehicles, smart agriculture)
• Convergence and Re-Convergence of Different Types of Networks and Fuctions
• 3GPP Technical Reports/Specifications and ITU-T Network 2030
▪ New IP is an extension, optimization and evolution of IP with new functions (capabilities, features) to
enlarge the Internet and connect networks that have not been connected to or cannot be connected
to the Internet, and is being designed to be interoperable with IPv4, IPv6 and many others
▪ Research and empirical results have been mainly published in IEEE and ACM with a volume of 120+
papers. Some industrial manufacturing-related companies, service providers and network operators
have shown their interest in New IP for their real problems and applications.
▪ Some prototypes have been implemented by different organizations in different countries. However, it
has not been standardized yet.