No more generations but continuous innovation in networks

Eugenio Moro (Politecnico di Milano)
Innovation and the process of standardizing radio networks have accustomed us to dealing with the arrival of a new generation of cellular networks approximately every ten years, from 1G analog cell phones to the latest standardized 5G and the emerging 6G, whose characteristics are beginning to take shape in research projects.
However, the profound changes in network architecture and technologies used present a challenge for a future in which we will no longer rely on technologically independent generations that require the development of new infrastructure. Similar to the software field, the goal is to enable a continuous innovation process that maintains backward compatibility and gradually evolves the network.