ETSI: How AI will be the ‘driving force’ behind 6G

As the race to define the next generation of mobile connectivity accelerates, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is clear on one thing: AI will not simply be a feature of 6G, it will be foundational to it.

The standards body is one of the founding partners of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which operates the standard behind 3G, 4G and 5G. Now, as chief services officer, Ultan Mulligan explained to Capacity, the organisation is currently in the study phase of 6G standardisation, evaluating the technologies that could help transform future networks.

“Next year, I hope we’ll see the start of real standardisation,” he said. “5G doesn’t stop, but we’re ramping up the 6G standards cycle.”

Building the AI-native network

Mulligan is eager to point out that AI is a moving target, with rapid and continued changes to the technology making standards and specifications challenging to write. He suggested that the architecture must be designed to harness AI across the full network lifecycle.

“Statements about what a future 6G network will look like – and how AI-native it will be – are based on what we know today, which may be very different by 2028,” he explained. “Regardless, we need to make sure we can evolve quickly and make the best use of AI across the full lifecycle.

“AI is going to have a very significant input, evolving every bit as fast as, if not faster than, 6G networks. It will very much be a driving force behind 6G.”

Embedding security will also be key moving forward. Mulligan argued that, if AI is going to be an integral part of 6G networks, the industry must ensure that operators can invest with confidence into AI-enabled, AI-native and even agentic AI networks.

“Assurance in the quality and performance of AI systems and security in the data – whether for training, telemetry, digital twins, or similar – is crucial,” he said.

ETSI actually has a technical committee that is focused on securing AI systems, given that AI has become a new attack surface for cybersecurity threats.

“We published our first standard on cybersecurity for AI systems last December and this will have to evolve as both cybersecurity and AI evolve,” Mulligan added. “It’s an absolutely key component that must be addressed from the beginning.”

Maintaining innovation while aligning with the regulatory landscape

ETSI is well-versed on the regulatory landscape, which continues to evolve amid Europe advancing frameworks like the EU AI Act. While the organisation’s standards are not currently being used by regulators in the context of the AI Act, Mulligan encourages the industry to look at the bigger picture.

“If we’re going to see widespread adoption of AI across industry, whether in telecommunications or elsewhere, we need confidence and assurance in the quality of AI systems and in how the underlying data is managed,” he said. “The wider industry needs to have confidence in AI – not just in AI companies, but those that use and leverage AI in their day-to-day business.”

Looking ahead, Mulligan said ETSI will be prioritising serving its members as best as possible.

“We’ll be continuing our work on standards around quality, performance and trust in AI systems,” he said. “Another evolving area is quantum-related communications – whether that’s post-quantum cryptography, or quantum key distribution and quantum-secure communications.”

The organisation also expects more standards to come into play around data management and data orchestration driven by AI and digital twins.

Mulligan said: “We shouldn’t overlook the continued evolution of 5G and 5G Advanced standards, as well as areas like mission-critical communications, including 5G and future 6G systems used by emergency services for broadband access. These are all quite important.”

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