6G Architecture Is Looking Like 5G Made Smarter, Not a Clean Slate
RCR Wireless News, Friday, October 16th, 2026
A 6G Forum panel agreed 6G will build on 5G standalone, cloud-native architecture, with AI and sensing pulled forward.
Panelists from OpenSignal, Viavi, Cohere Technologies, Nokia and Orange broadly agreed that 6G will build on what 5G established: cloudification, service-based architecture, open interfaces and disaggregation.
AI and integrated sensing and communications, originally scoped for 6G, are already being pulled into current networks because of AI and defense imperatives.
Nokia's Omer Bulakci argued that 5G standalone, not non-standalone, must be the starting point for 6G.
That is a hurdle, since a GSA report cited on the panel says only about 20% of commercial 5G deployments are standalone.