Conference Agenda

Meeting the challenges of the AI/6G future will require a significant expansion of wireless connectivity infrastructure in the form of small cells at mid-range distances of a few 100s of meters to a few kilometers. That is the distance where the coverage of end-user deployed (private) wireless networks (mostly using WiFi) and 5G+ cellular (public) networks overlap. Closing that gap to enable seamless wireless connectivity to ensure that AI applications have the on-demand access to digital resources that may be needed is at the core of the 6G vision. Legacy hardware architectures for the radio transceivers used in wireless networks are inadequate to meet this challenge because they are inherently spectrally inefficient, using too much power that results in excess co-channel interference. Continued reliance on legacy transceiver designs is constraining efforts to scale wireless connectivity today and will worsen over time. Better approaches to addressing a fundamental barrier to spectral efficiency that will enable lower power, higher quality radio transmissions have been known for a long time, but implementation remained infeasible until convergent technical advances made it feasible to implement the better architecture in commercially available 5G radios (e.g., from Eridan.io).

Although an important remaining technical barrier impeding the densification of edge wireless networks, or equivalently, small cell deployments has now been eliminated, policy reforms are necessary to unleash the pro-competitive economic forces holding back faster, lower-cost, and more scalable deployment of small cells. In this paper, the authors explain the physics that enable the paradigm shift in radio design that significantly addresses the co-channel interference problem that heretofore has stood in the way of reduced spectrum scarcity. Contending with the co-channel interference problem contributed to justifying regulatory frameworks and cellular business models biased in favor of higher-power, larger cell networks. Meeting the spectrum requirements of legacy networks and business models has significantly contributed to artificial spectrum scarcity and increased the costs of scaling coverage and capacity on-demand for all market participants, while also retarding competition. Cutting the Gordian Knot to unleash the symbiotic growth potential of AI and 6G now and for a future in which enhanced spectral efficiency is not just desirable but essential if growth options are not to be denied will require revising regulations for the siting of small cell antennas that are overly restrictive, tightening RF noise limits that are overly lax, and a number of other tweaks to existing wireless regulations.

The goal of this paper is to make the case for why it is necessary now to unleash the market forces impeding a rapid expansion in small cells and to identify a path forward. This requires explaining the linkages between the legacy technologies and the economic and regulatory structures those encouraged and highlighting how the policy reforms will enable and incentivize the economic and policy transformations needed to enable 6G seamless connectivity. Empirical evidence of the improved performance and benefits of the new radio hardware and the improved power-efficiency that is achievable demonstrates that this is not just theoretical speculation, but commercially feasible today. Moreover, as we explain, the new architecture will also contribute to unlocking further progress toward enabling cloud-based radio access networks by enabling further advances in distributed MIMO (D-MIMO). Unlocking options for deploying small cells to extend high-performance wireless connectivity where coverage is lacking (which includes many industrial and agricultural applications ripe for AI-augmented automation) and facilitating easier capacity expansion wherever it is needed will contribute to more flexible, adaptive and resilient wireless infrastructure. Making the case for the transformative potential to be realized form enabling small cell deployments is a multidisciplinary challenge. The co-authors of this paper are an engineer and economist with several decades of experience each in the challenges of managing the co-evolution of wireless technologies, markets, and spectrum management policies.