Sustainable IT starts with public cloud…

Driven largely by the Paris Agreement of 2015, businesses of all sizes are increasingly committed to sustainability. From reducing carbon emissions to implementing eco-friendly practices, there is a growing push towards sustainable business operations.

This comes at a time when rapid growth of the digital economy is significantly increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions. The rise of computing has led to concerns about its environmental impact. As companies strive to become more environmentally conscious, a green concept for future IT has become a critical component of sustainable business operations.

The role of public cloud will be central to sustainable IT. However, when managed haphazardly, public cloud can rapidly lead to waste and inefficiency – virtually bottomless and out of sight, public cloud tempts employees to shoot first and ask questions later. On the other hand, properly managed public cloud provides consistent energy savings in comparison to traditional on-premises data center solutions. This comes down to a conscious choice that each organization faces.

…and continues with FinOps

Leveraging energy-efficient technologies, optimizing resource usage, promoting remote work, developing green computing practices, and enabling collaboration among users and organizations, public cloud has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions compared to traditional on-premises IT infrastructure (by up to 95%).

Therefore, when I work with organizations to help them reduce their carbon footprints, one of my first recommendations is migrating their workloads to public cloud (if an organization hasn’t made that move yet). However, the cloud sustainability journey doesn’t finish with an eco-friendly public cloud environment; this is where it begins. Once the workloads are landed in the public cloud, it is important to run them with a sustainable cloud operation approach. That’s where FinOps comes in.         

The role of FinOps in cloud sustainability

FinOps (short for financial operations) is a cloud financial management discipline and cultural practice that focuses on tracking and optimizing cloud spending. It does so by bringing together IT, finance, engineering, and business teams, and providing a cultural mechanism for teams to manage their cloud costs, where everyone takes accountability of their cloud usage.

FinOps – when applied correctly – ensures the optimal usage of cloud resources, which in turn promotes not only cost efficiency but also energy savings and carbon emissions reductions. In other words, if you do not build such a cost-usage-control framework in your public cloud environment – where resource deployment is unlimited due to a pay-as-you-go cloud consumption model – this suboptimal cloud usage leads to underutilization and waste in the form of excess energy consumption and carbon emissions. Therefore, FinOps is sustainable by design.

FinOps helps organizations achieve their sustainability goals in the cloud by implementing cloud cost optimization techniques like:

• Establishing FinOps governance and policies
• Rightsizing and autoscaling of elastic resources
• Shifting workloads to containers
• Automated scheduling of compute services
• Decommissioning of idle and unused resources
• Reducing log ingestion
• Optimizing storage tier and redundancy
• Refactoring and mutualizing of applications by cloud native architectures (e.g., plarform as a service)
• Budgeting, forecasting, and overspending alerts
• Managing anomalies
• Establishing FinOps culture and accountability
• Switching usage-based pricing to new consumption models (reservations, saving plans, spot instances, etc.) for more efficient resource usage 

Brothers-in-arms – how FinOps supports GreenOps

FinOps and GreenOps are two distinct methodologies that – when used together – form a powerful strategy for organizations looking to optimize their cloud usage and reduce their environmental impact.

While FinOps is focused on managing cloud consumption, GreenOps is focused on implementing sustainable practices within an organization’s operations. It involves developing strategies that prioritize environmental sustainability while still achieving business objectives like reducing waste, promoting renewable energy sources, using eco-friendly materials and processes, and promoting a culture of sustainability and environmental responsibility. By identifying and mitigating carbon emissions, organizations can reduce their impact on the environment and contribute to a more sustainable future.

There is a bit more to it though. GreenOps encompasses everything an organization does to reduce the carbon footprint of their cloud program. This might include relocating resources to companies or regions where sustainable energy is used or using code that requires less energy to run. But the greatest contribution by far is usually – in my experience – made by FinOps.

The most obvious way is through optimization of cloud resource consumption, which naturally reduces energy consumption. FinOps can also help companies choose the most environmentally friendly cloud service providers. Best of all, the gains made by FinOps allow for continuous improvement and ensure that a company remains on track to achieve its sustainability targets.

FinOps and GreenOps can create common work areas with unified dashboards, enabling teams to make joint decisions. A great example of how FinOps and GreenOps can work together is through the optimization of supply chains. Together, teams can identify areas where supply chain inefficiencies are leading to unnecessary energy consumption so that organizations can reduce their carbon emissions and save money. FinOps can be used to identify supply chain inefficiencies, while GreenOps can be used to implement sustainable supply chain solutions.

Future IT: Sustainable and cost-effective cloud operations

Sustainability is a natural benefit of FinOps – one of many. In fact, FinOps can be an essential framework for organizations looking to reduce their environmental impact while saving money. Moreover, when combined, FinOps and GreenOps can create a more holistic approach for companies to manage their cloud resources in a sustainable and cost-effective way while also maximizing the business value of public cloud.

Incorporating FinOps recommendations into cloud operations can help drive both sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Creating a vision for end-to-end cloud operations and decarbonizing procurement are essential first steps that enable teams to identify and optimize savings opportunities. Continuous improvement and automation, empowering teams to take action, and promoting a culture of green accountability is crucial for long-term success. By adopting these measures, businesses can achieve their financial goals while also contributing to a more sustainable future.

Looking to go deeper into FinOps? Check out our FinOps services & download the whitepaper developed by IDC and commissioned by Capgemini to explore the full potential of FinOps and the value it brings to every stage of the cloud journey.

But, supply chains have proven more fragile than once thought. The global pandemic showed big shocks can create dramatic change, which suppliers may not be ready for. And when we emerge from that change – whether a day or a year later – individual suppliers may not be the same. They may have gone bust, lost key staff, pivoted to different customers, or found they are simply not setup for the new situation before them.

Hopefully the next pandemic is years away. But shocks are becoming more common and the dream of ‘borderless’ supply chains is fading. Whether its Brexit, Ukraine, lockdowns, protectionism, sanctions, fallings out, or someone getting their boat stuck in the Suez canal, the world is less stable for suppliers, which means those who rely on them need to be more vigilant.

This is felt particularly strongly in Aerospace and Defence, industries where around 80% of any finished product comes from the supply chain, and which are currently expected scale up in this time of supplier uncertainty.

Forecasts suggest 40,000 new planes will be needed in the next 20 years, off the back of a rapid scale down over the pandemic. Defence had been reducing spend for years and discontinued many products, but now must restock and reinvent as military threats rise and its support for Ukraine depletes supplies.

As they build and evolve supply chains, they will face new challenges. As example, materials from aluminium to chips are in high demand from automotive, a far more material intensive industry. And they will need to pay more attention to sustainability – new rules and pressures may mean that polluting suppliers will not be allowed to stay on the books for long.

So, they need sustainable supply chains, with long term certainty, to fuel a massive production increase, in the face of still competition for resources, in an unpredictable world.

What should they do?

Building resilient & sustainable supply chains from the bottom up

At the top level, a resilient supply chain might be seen as a control tower, with visibility of stock levels and events, backed by whizzy AI making real-time optimisations and recommendations. And indeed Capgemini has insight on how to build such a system.

But such a system is only as good as the information that goes into it. In a volatile world, that means understanding the risks facing suppliers themselves, so you can make decisions at an individual supplier level, which embeds resilience across your supply chain. 

What are the risks to resilience in your supply chain?

Some risks lead to problems that are highly specific. A broken machine will delay orders. If the supplier is slow to act, the solution may literally be to send your auditor back to oversee the ordering of replacement parts and repair.

Others may be more structural. If suppliers are becoming reluctant to sell you aluminium – eg because of a slowdown in global supply – you may need a change your approach, such as moving your commitment from six months to five years, or bidding higher to secure priority, or adding new suppliers. That needs careful analysis of your needs. If you make a commitment and the supplier goes bust or you change to a non-aluminium design, you lose out. But if you do nothing, you may not have the materials to make your product.

Increasingly, being resilient means being sustainable. As new climate regulations emerge and consumers pile on pressure, working with polluting suppliers will cease to be viable. If those suppliers are important to your product, then that poses a threat to resilience, meaning you need to make them change, or find new ones.

First action will be to be able to aggregate all GHG emissions from the Supply Chain (from raw materials to Tier 1 suppliers) to calculate Inbound emissions and generate Scope 3 reports (all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions). Define industry standards and tool for reporting is actual challenges to be tackle.

Understand the risks, and make changes to build resilience

Understanding where you have these and other problems means doing the hard work of visiting suppliers. This may be part of a continuous auditing process, part of onboarding, or a specific intervention following a shock. For example, after the pandemic reopening, we found ourselves working with a client to audit their entire 200 company supply chain in just a couple of weeks, to assess readiness to scale in an uncertain time.

Either way, it means sending experts to suppliers’ sites to understand their situation, and gather info. These must be people who can spot problems or risks that would not show up in a call or data analysis, such as lower than reported stock, incorrect storage, lack of skills, crumbling machinery, or higher than claimed emissions.

Individual supplier resilience data can be combined with Business Intelligence (BI) tools, risk models and expert analysis to build up full situational awareness across the supply chain – a moderate risk at one supplier may be manageable, but if that risk is replicated across all suppliers of that product, that may be a red flag that needs addressing.

Having understood the problems and risks, you can identify a remediation or recovery plan. That may include upgrades, training, new processes, data collection and reporting. You must also ensure your supplier implements it, using an appropriate mix of carrots (committed orders, investment) and sticks (threats to take business elsewhere).

Even with the best laid plans, suppliers fail, and many companies take months or years to onboard new ones. In a volatile world, these processes need to be revisited to allow much quicker onboarding and transferring of work. It is why implement now a Sustainable procurement strategy is critical to only select low emissions new suppliers and develop current ones to improve their current GHG emissions to anticipate future restrictions

Managing everyday issues

Supply chains are complicated and even reliable suppliers get things wrong. Another key part of supplier resilience is having quick and efficient processes for resolving day-to-day problems which can quickly add up to a large costs of business.

These are issues like rejecting defective goods. Often companies handle this at a local level, but a central team with a dedicated company-wide platform is usually more efficient. When there is an issue at any level, it is flagged in the system, resolved by dedicated experts including processing the issue, reordering, resolving payments, and closing it.

Additionally, the key to getting this right is having people with technical knowledge, change management skills, and the soft skills to get suppliers to listen and act. Having these skills in local teams is also important, as knowledge of language and culture are critical to getting results. Local teams are also vital to maintaining a low carbon footprint.

The key for success here involves mixing central expertise and a network of experts.

Conclusion

In an ideal world –we would have something like the film Minority Report – where we predict exactly what will happen, and act in advance, sending instructions straight to suppliers to change focus to adjust for the upcoming shock.

This is not realistic. The world is too complex to predict every shock, from a machine breaking at a critical moment, to a global lockdown. But we can be ready for problems, with resilient suppliers and processes to help them adapt and respond to problems including the integration of environmental protection (GHG) as a key pilar. That means a combination of on-the-ground experts, processes and technology.

Around 15 years ago, I was involved in a large ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system deal. It involved HR capabilities (including talent management, compensation etc), financial capabilities (like accounts payable and receivable), logistics capabilities (stocks and inventory) and procurement capabilities (vendor management etc). At the time, the obvious choice and the best solution was to have all these capabilities integrated into one platform and coolest at the time was the SAP system (possibly it still is). The major advantage was having it all connected and with huge amount of transactions handled by one platform by everyone, the cost per transaction went down considerably (economies of scale).

Could this approach at amalgamation on to one platform work in the DPA world as well? Does it make sense to run all the processes on one platform in order to get the economies of scale? For many years organizations have decided to stick with one platform to see cost per transaction go down, simplification of the architecture and an advantage of only building skills on one platform. And, if you trust everything the polished vendor slides are saying, you should use the same platform for CRM, Customer Service and Sales to really reap all the benefits. The story of one platform (to rule them all) is indeed quite convincing! And this trend (especially the use of a platform for many purposes) has been going on for some time now (just look at the waves and quadrants). The big Question is how come not all organizations are ‘buying it’?

In my view it all comes down to two other strategies, ‘best-of-breed’ and ‘fit-for-purpose’. Adopting a best-of-breed strategy means you want the best technical capabilities from the leading vendor in each specific area, be it DPA or CRM or Marketing automation. This is not new and explains why the ERP concept wasn’t as successful in the CX area. However, having a fit-for-purpose approach is newer.

Imagine you bought a state-of-the-art DPA platform (like Pega or Appian) to manage your super complex and highly regulatory payment processes with embedded business rules for payment investigations and disputes. The platform might be quite expensive but considering what you’re saving in quality, compliance and automation – ‘it’s so worth it!’. For this exact purpose, the leading DPA platform would be a perfect fit, especially if it’s a framework (like a regulatory scheme) that the vendor consistently updates twice a year. Now imagine a few years down the line, you’re implementing GDPR. Still highly regulatory and some complexity. The leading DPA solution might still be fit-for-purpose here. But, what happens if the bank wants to send out a survey about the new Mobile App and is offering each respondent two movie tickets, that are being sent to their home address? Probably, the leading DPA platform is a bit of an overkill for this purpose, while a simple low code tool or a basic case management tool could be fit-for-purpose here. 

Only the last month, I’ve come across three very large banks that are using several process platforms at the same time, as a part of their strategy. But, on the other hand, medium or smaller sized organizations can possibly not afford three parallel technologies based on different use cases. There, it would make more sense to see if there are platforms that are good enough for all (or at least most) of the prospective use cases and usage areas. The advantages of using one platform for both DPA, CRM, Customer Service and Sales can also be substantial there. Especially, since you have only one technology to maintain, one technology skill to build capabilities on etc, which would argue the case for ‘one platform to rule them all’. Are you unsure of where your new use case should fit best? Feel free to reach out to us!

How banks are using data to monitor and manage their customer experience performance

It’s 2023, and banks are still being asked to go in two directions at once.
On one hand, banks must keep up with customers’ evolving expectations, while on the other, they must continuously improve business profitability. It’s a challenge that requires a high degree of coordination and strategic planning. Unfortunately, for many banks a lack of effective metrics and processes is hindering their ability to make informed, real-time decisions, and that’s holding them back. This blog will explore how effective customer experience performance management can help banks achieve their business objectives with optimal customer satisfaction.

The intersection of business and customer experience
Banks must focus on achieving specific business improvements such as cost reduction and revenue enhancement – without sacrificing customer experience. Preference should be given for transformation projects that meet these expectations­. Projects such as omnichannel communication, self-service adoption, knowledge management, mobile-first design, and CCaaS all have the potential to improve the customer experience and drive business results.

To improve customer service, banks must define specific, controllable customer service activities that can be performed, measured, and improved at each level of the organization. This should include coordination across the customer life cycle, technology acquisition, processes, customer interactions, and collaboration with partners. There’s a term for this process: customer service performance management. The benefits of customer service performance management are clear – streamlined decision making, faster process delivery, and lower customer service expenditures. So… where’s the snag?

Defining metrics…
If you can’t measure it, you can’t master it. The key to focusing attention and effort is to define the right metrics. This means leveraging data analytics and customer feedback to gain insights into customers’ behavior and preferences. In means enhancing data-sharing capabilities between departments. Do your customer service agents have access to your CRM data? Are salespeople leveraging customers’ unique histories? By defining and tracking metrics, and by sharing them securely between teams, banks can improve customer experience and drive profitability, ultimately achieving sustainable growth and long-term success in the dynamic banking industry.

…that drive improvement
With a set of data-driven metrics, step two is using those metrics to inform decisioning at every level. Some banks find it helpful to appoint a Customer Experience Officer with the authority to determine whether the defined metrics and activities support or inhibit CX goals. They should also groom and compensate customer service managers based on their enterprise vision of customer service. Additionally, banks must build a real-time analytical framework to ensure that a customer is treated appropriately at every phase in the customer life cycle.

Here are several more recommendations for improving service for banking customers:

1. Appoint a Customer Experience Officer with authority to determine whether the defined metrics and activities support or inhibit collaboration between and among multiple groups.
2. Groom and compensate customer service managers based on their enterprise vision of customer service.
3. Evolve the concept of customer life cycle management from an often discussed but poorly administered concept to a more practical approach.
4. Measure the specific effects technology has on decision making, organizational structures, business processes and customer expectations.
5. Build a real-time analytical framework to ensure that a customer is treated appropriately at every phase in the customer life cycle.

Customer Experience Analytics & Insights

A foundation for lasting customer loyalty
By making customer experience an integral part of the overall business strategy, banks can improve customer satisfaction, build customer loyalty, and enhance overall business performance. This process can also help break down silos within the organization, leading to better collaboration and communication across departments, for a more unified and cohesive customer experience.

Ultimately, banks must view customer service as an enterprise-wide business objective and prioritize effective performance management to achieve their business objectives. By leveraging customer initiatives across departments, mapping touchpoints to ensure consistency, and communicating a clear customer service roadmap to employees, banks can better meet customer expectations and achieve their business objectives.

A point of view on the technology advancements in 6G platforms and ecosystems.

Life in 2030

In 2030, the world will look dramatically different due to technological advancements in connectivity and associated technologies. The metaverse is likely to become fundamental to everyday life. 8K virtual reality (VR) headsets and brain-interface devices will probably become mainstream. There could be widespread proliferation of level-5 autonomous vehicles and hyperloop tunnels could enable faster international travel. Hypersonic airliners could enter service. “Smart Grid” technology will become widespread in the developed world. 3D-printed organs, blood vessels, and nanorobotics may improve our quality of life. Artificial brain implants could restore lost memories.  Quantum computing may become cheap enough to be mainstream. The first version of the quantum internet is likely to emerge, with terabyte internet speeds becoming commonplace. The entire ocean floor will probably be mapped, making deep ocean mining operations feasible. Hypersonic missiles will be a plausible addition to most major militaries, as will be AI-enabled warfare. The High-Definition Space Telescope (HDST) could be operational. The first permanent lunar base could be established.

Making this new hyper-connected world a reality will require a massive leap forward; one that that provides 1,000 times faster connectivity than what is possible today, with data transfer speed in terabytes per second and extremely low latency allowing response time in a few microseconds.

Although 5G networks are slowly maturing, and their full potential is still to be unleashed, the limits of 5G do not allow infrastructures and networks to simultaneously guarantee a speed of terabytes/second with extremely low latency. This calls for thinking beyond 5G.

Mobile networks: past, present, and future

Wireless cellular communication networks have seen the rise of a so-called new-generation technology approximately every ten years and each consecutive generation has resulted from disruptive technological advancement and societal change (Figure 1). If this trend continues, 6G may be introduced in the early 2030s, or at least that’s when most smartphone manufacturers will release 6G-capable mobiles, and 6G trials will be in full swing.

It is too early to provide a detailed list of features that 6G will bring, but there are emerging themes from research that are shaping new technologies like new spectrum, visible light communication, AI native radio, cell free networks, intelligent surfaces, holograph communication, non-terrestrial networks (satellites, High Altitude Platforms (HAPs), drones etc.) etc. In addition, the lessons learned from 5G network deployments and user ecosystems will play a big part in defining 6G.

What really is 6G and how it is shaping up?

6G is expected to provide hyper-connectivity that will lessen the divide between humanity and the inanimate world of machines and computers.

Considering the general trend of successive generations of communication systems introducing new services with more stringent requirements, it is reasonable to expect that 6G will build on the strengths of 5G and introduce new technologies with requirements that far exceed the capabilities of 5G.

Regulatory bodies are considering allowing 6G networks to use higher frequencies than 5G networks. Since spectral efficiency, bandwidth, and network densification are the three main ingredients needed to achieve higher data rates, this is likely to provide substantially higher capacity and much lower latency. Terahertz (THz) bands from 100GHz to 10THz are currently being considered. This will allow the delivery of a peak data rate of 1,000 gigabits/second with over-the-air latency lower than 100 microseconds. The current intent is to make 6G, 50 times faster than 5G, 10,000 times more reliable, and able to support ten times more devices per square kilometer while offering wider coverage.

Though these are early days of 6G, a rough sketch of what 6G performance will look like and its comparison with 5G is suggested in the initial studies. For example, peak data rate in 5G is 200 Gb/s, whereas that in 6G is estimated to be 1 Tb/s, maximum bandwidth is 1 GHz in 5G vs 100 GHz in 6G, latency is 1 millisecond in 5G vs 100 microseconds in 6G, reliability is 1-10^-5 in 5G vs 1-10^-9 in 6G, peak mobility supported is 500 km/h in 5G vs 1000 km/h in 6G, energy latency is not specified in 5G but in 6G it is estimated to be 1 Tb/J. Detailed comparison is available in [1].

This research into 6G may seem premature, but the geopolitical race for leadership on this next big thing in telecommunications technology is already gearing up. Countries across the globe are spending huge sums on 6G research. Various consortia are forming, and research projects are starting to address the new standards and vertical use cases, such as vehicle connectivity and private industrial networks. The key 6G initiatives across the globe are shown below (Figure 2).

6G use cases and the technologies driving them

Expanding upon the foundation of 5G, 6G will enable a much wider set of futuristic use cases that, when deployed on a massive scale, will transform the way we live and work in remarkable ways.

Telecom operators, technology providers, and academia are joining forces under various alliances and consortia and deliberating which use cases will emerge in the next decade and be adopted by 6G. NGMN [2], Next G Alliance [3], one6G [4] are just some of the leading alliances that have recently published 6G use cases.

Figure 3 shows the categorization of various 6G use cases that enhance human-to-human, human-to-machine, machine-to-machine, and machine-to-human communication.

Key technical areas

These use cases are driving the technology trends and steering the requirements for future generational change. The key technical areas that will accelerate 6G introduction include technological enhancements, architectural improvements, and accelerating adoption (Figure 4).

Top technology areas include:

1. New Spectrum: The 6G era will necessitate a 20X increase in network capacity. 6G will meet this challenge through new spectrum in range (7 to 24 GHz) including sub-THz range (larger than 100 GHz) and ultra-massive MIMO.
2. AI Native Networks: AI will become a native ingredient in 6G networks so that the network can become fully autonomous and hide the increased network complexity from users. A dynamic AI/ML-defined native air interface will be key for future networks. These interfaces could give radios the ability to learn from one another and from their environments.
3. Sensing and positioning: With near-THz frequencies, the potential for very accurate sensing based on radar-like technology arises. 6G networks will be able to sense their surroundings, allowing us to generate highly realized digital versions of the physical world. This digital awareness would turn the network into our sixth sense. It will particularly improve performance in indoor communications scenarios by acquiring and sending better information about the indoor space, range, barriers, and positioning to the network. Please refer to this for more information.
4. Security, trust, and privacy: 6G will provide advanced network security, trustworthiness, and privacy protections to unlock the full value potential of 6G, with quantum safe cryptography and distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchain.
5. Ubiquitous connectivity: 6G will provide reliable networking connectivity, focusing on extreme performance and coverage when and where needed through seamless integration of non-terrestrial networks such as satellites, drones, and HAPs with the terrestrial network. Please refer to this for more information.
6. Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS): IRS is a thin panel integrated with many independently controllable passive reflection elements– that can improve the security, spectrum, energy efficiency, and converge of 6G networks by adjusting the amplitude and phase shifts of reflection elements in IRS for achieving fine-grained reflect beamforming.

Capgemini’s 6G initiative

Capgemini has a rich history of leading mobile technologies and possesses end-to-end capabilities in RAN, edge, and core. In addition, Capgemini is a leading player in Open RAN, something that is likely to become more widespread as technology deployment continues.

Capgemini has a head start in 6G research, particularly in the areas of mesh networks, AI for network automation, sustainability, and quantum cryptography. Our first 6G research paper on “xURLLC in 6G with meshed RAN,” was published in the “ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies (ITU J-FET) – Volume 3, Issue 3, December 2022” [9]. The objective of this research is to define a new network architecture that will make the 6G networks simpler, more flexible, and able to support extremely low latency communication.

Academic collaborations with IISc Bangalore to identify rouge base stations using abnormally high power and with Princeton University to allow federated learning towards the goal of a user-centric cell-free 6G are also underway.

Capgemini is also an active member of O-RAN alliance and participates in its next Generation Research Group (nGRG) task force to determine how O-RAN will evolve to support 6G and beyond.

Conclusion

Today, we are in quite early stages of the rollout of 5G, and we still have a long way to go with the maturing of this technology. However, this is the ideal time to plan for the future and ask what’s next. Emerging use cases for beyond 5G and 6G seem to be taking a firm footing and suggest that 5G may only open the door to such use cases. New and more stringent requirements will continue to push the evolution of wireless well beyond 5G and 6G. Capgemini is at the forefront of 6G research, with strong partnership with academia and industry.

TelcoInsights is a series of posts about the latest trends and opportunities in the telecommunications industry – powered by a community of global industry experts and thought leaders.

References

1. White Paper on Broadband Connectivity in 6G
2. NGMN Identifies 6G Use Cases
3. Next G Alliance – 6G Applications and Use Cases
4. One6G – 6G Vertical Use Cases
5. What’s Inside Counts: How 6G Can Enable Ubiquitous, Reliable Indoor Location Services
6. The Future of 6G is Up in the Air — Literally
7. Non-Terrestrial Networks in 5G & Beyond: A Survey
8. Faster, Smarter, Greener: Intelligent Reflecting Surface for 6G Communications
9. xURLLC in 6G with meshed

Rail operators want to replace old mechanical rail systems with modern digital alternatives, enabling the rapid deployment of innovative digital services.

These will include intelligent traffic management, automated shunting, infrastructure monitoring, and connected workers. Such systems however will require advanced connectivity delivered over high-bandwidth communications, with service-oriented architectures, and safety-critical cloud infrastructure. But many currently use legacy communications systems such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM-R), based on decades-old 2G technology.

A future intelligent rail will need to upgrade. Since such upgrades happen irregularly, a number of advances have been made since the last one. Many railways are therefore looking to jump straight to 5G, under the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) standard.

Designed by the International Union of Railways, FRMCS aims to become the worldwide standard. It is a network architecture is designed to provide a software platform with rail in mind, onto which new digital services to be easily built and launched, and services easily upgraded over-the-air.

FRMCS is targeted to replace GSM-R in the next 7-10 years. But this will be no easy task. Railways are complicated and new services take time because of extensive testing, verification, and

stringent safety requirements. The technological challenges are immense; including dual operation during the co-existence period, network type and technology deployment decisions, and new security threats.

But these are challenges we must overcome to deliver future rail networks – and all the safety improvements and cost savings that will come with them.

In our new whitepaper, Future Railway Mobile Communication Systems, we discuss the benefits and challenges of deploying 5G under FRMCS, and propose a model for a migration strategy.