Sustainability and 6G Development: Case Study of Sustainable Spectrum Management

Abstract

Sustainable development and sustainability are overarching design aspects for the next generation of mobile communication systems (6G). The notion of sustainability is about ensuring that our actions today do not limit the range of social, economic and environmental options open to future generations, which needs to become the fundamental driver for global 6G R&D. To integrate sustainability principles into 6G, this paper presents an overview of current activities and focuses on a case study of including sustainability principles into spectrum management in 6G. The newly emerged sustainable spectrum management paradigm is further developed in the context of 6G highlighting the role of spectrum sharing as a fundamental enabling technology for making spectrum management decisions that do not limit the range of options open to future generations. Additionally, actions for sustainable spectrum management principles are proposed.