The power of data: how traffic demand and data analytics are driving network evolution toward 6G systems

The evolution of communication systems always follows data traffic evolution and further influences innovations that are unlocking new markets and services. While 5G deployment is still ongoing in the various countries, data-driven considerations (extracted both from forecasts at macroscopic level, detailed analysis of live network traffic patterns and specific measures from terminals) can conveniently feed insights suitable for many purposes (B2B e.g., operator planning and network management, but also B2C e.g. smarter applications and AI-aided services), in the view of future 6G systems. Also, technology trends from standards and research projects (like Hexa-X), are moving with industry efforts on this evolution. This paper shows the importance of data-driven insights, by first exploring the network evolution across the years from a data point of view, and then by using global traffic forecasts complemented by data traffic extractions from live 5G operator network (statistical network counters and measures from terminals) to draw some considerations on the possible evolution toward 6G. It finally presents a concrete case study showing how data collected from the live network can be exploited to help the design of AI operations and feed QoS predictions.