Wireless Beyond Standardization

Research Project, 2025 – 2026

Over the past three decades, mobile networks have rapidly expanded in both technology and global adoption, now serving around 6 billion 4G or 5G subscribers. This global success has been largely driven by standardization, which ensures interoperability, regulatory compliance, and cost-effective manufacturing. However, this model is increasingly challenged by the fast-paced rise of data-driven methods and AI, particularly generative AI (GenAI), which evolve far faster than traditional standardization processes. This raises the question to which extent standardization will still be a cornerstone of mobile networking in the future, which is also strategically relevant to Swedish industry.This network grant aims to explore radically new approaches to mobile network design — looking beyond 6G — with a focus on the transformative potential of GenAI. Key research questions include: (1) What foundational technologies will future mobile networks rely on? (2) What role, if any, will remain for standardization? (3) Can GenAI enable scalable, automated customization for semantic communication?The consortium is composed of six renown researchers from 5 different universities in Sweden representing the fields mobile networking, machine learning, information theory, software engineering and hardware. We plan to execute the network grant through a series of workshops and meetings, driving our research agenda while on the other hand tying key national and international stakeholders.