Networld Europe, Technical Annex to Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2022-27

This technical annex to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2022-2027 highlights critical innovations in mobile communications, particularly in the evolution of cellular networks toward service-based, modular, and virtualized frameworks. As mobile networks have integrated cloud-native principles, aspects as software, security and AI have become core components of modern telecom infrastructures. The document emphasizes how mobile networks, especially in the 5G era, have adopted microservices and containerized architectures to enhance efficiency, reduce latency, and improve service delivery. These innovations enable dynamic resource allocation, allowing mobile operators to localize services within distributed data centers for optimized network performance. The rise of non-terrestrial networks, including satellite and high-altitude platforms, also plays a crucial role in expanding global connectivity. The annex explores the role of AI-driven network management, automated decision-making for traffic routing, and security challenges inherent in increasingly software-defined mobile environments. By addressing the evolution of mobile communication technologies—from radio and signal processing advancements to open and programmable systems—the annex provides insights into the future of telecommunications. Furthermore, the document dwells on the challenges facing the optical backbones for these systems, and the opportunities for the devices and semiconductors associated with the future networks. This document serves as a comprehensive reference for the technical aspects of next-generation mobile networks, detailing how innovations in programmability, virtualization, and adaptive service provisioning are shaping the future of cellular communications.