Finnish vendor Nokia teamed with 29 other industry, research and academic partners on a Germany-funded 6G research project, with plans to advance development through a focus on architecture and standardisation.

The 6G-Access, Network of Networks, Automation and Simplification (6G-ANNA) project is 70 per cent funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Nokia is the overall leader of the initiative, which is set to run over three years with a total budget of €38.4 million.

BMBF indicated Nokia’s rival Ericsson and Vodafone Germany are among the partners. 6G-ANNA also forms part of a wider national platform initiative.

Nokia and partners stated they aim to design an “end-to-end 6G architecture”, with plans to conduct proof of concept testing in areas including sub-networks, XR and “real-time digital twinning”.

Head of Nokia standards Peter Merz acknowledged the first 6G networks “are not expected to be commercially available before 2030”, but noted 5G Advanced is “already laying the technical foundation” for future developments.

Within the project, Nokia will collaborate with four academic 6G Hubs in Germany with more than 60 university chairs.

“Beyond Germany, 6G-ANNA aims to interact with other major 6G flagship projects in Europe and the US to shape global” standards, the vendor stated.

Nokia recently announced a collaboration with South Korea-based LG Uplus on 5G Advanced and 6G research projects.