National research programme Future networks
The Future networks programme aims to encourage and support upstream research activities in the TRL 1- 4 range, in line with the priorities set out in the France 2030 strategy. It is managed by the CEA, the CNRS and the ITM. This programme is part of the France 2030 ‘5G and Networks of the Future’ Acceleration Strategy, which aims to position France in a market that is essential to guaranteeing its digital sovereignty.
|
The Future networks programme aims to encourage and support upstream research activities in the TRL 1- 4 range, in line with the priorities defined in the France 2030 strategy.
5G and 6G are defined and specified (with 6G as a premise) to meet the expectations of ‘vertical’ markets, i.e. strategic industrial sectors such as connected healthcare, industry of the future (4.0), connected vehicles, intelligent agriculture and the agri-food industry, and so on. They offer a wide variety of ‘radio’ configurations and great architectural flexibility (end-to-end) to best adapt to the various use cases, from the Internet of Industrial Objects to very high speed for virtual reality, for example.
5G and 6G are also at the heart of the European Commission's industrial strategy, and will constitute a critical infrastructure for its sovereignty and that of its Member States, with a major security issue at stake, as the ANSSI has made clear. This match between 5G/6G and the needs of European industries will create significant value.
The strategic role of these systems is reinforced by the prospects for technological and ecosystem developments. Technologies are evolving to enable, among other things, the use of millimetre bands, the integration of new concepts such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and non-terrestrial networks, and new-generation fibre networks. The new architectures introduce the necessary flexibility, notably through end-to-end virtualisation and advanced orchestration of all the functionalities and multiple players involved. Network-cloud-sensing convergence opens up the potential for countless new services, reduces the costs of existing services and makes it possible to envisage far-reaching transformations in the industrial ecosystem and, in particular, its current geography. Since its deployment in the early 2020s, 5G has been the subject of expectations, but also of controversies that need to be analysed.