Rostelecom 5G NETWORKS AND THE EVOLUTION TO 6G 5G Networks Networks 5G 6G to and the Evolution Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) Project Office # FIPS Project Office PATENT ANALYTICS FACTORY Rostelecom 5G NETWORKS AND THE EVOLUTION TO 6G Patent Landscape Project Office of FIPS 2020 PATENT ANALYTICS FACTORY 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 14 GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE TECHNOLOGY 26 RESEARCH METHODS 32 Defining the scope and boundaries of the patent landscape 34 Domain model 35 Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) and User Equipment 36 Backhaul Network 36 Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure 38 5G Core 39 Functional Components for Network Management 40 Network Services and Digital Platforms 41 Search strategy development 42 TRENDS 46 General information on the collection 48 Patenting dynamics 51 Maturity of patent families 55 Legal status of patent documents 72 COMPANIES AND PEOPLE 78 Analysis of patenting by leading companies 80 SEP Family Analysis 91 Analysis of patent profiles of companies 96 3 HUAWEI 105 QUALCOMM 113 SAMSUNG (Electronics) 119 ERICSSON 128 NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION 135 Analysis of the competitive environment of leading companies 142 Citation link analysis 148 Analysis of authors 172 PATENTING GEOGRAPHY 186 Emergence of patenting across countries 189 Growth of patenting across countries 194 Patenting in Russia 200 AREAS OF APPLICATION 210 Terminology field analysis 217 Analysis of IPC sections 224 TECHNOLOGY SEGMENTS 240 General analysis by segments 242 Analysis of patent holders by segments 251 Analysis of patenting geography by segments 258 Description of the most valuable technical solutions by segments 263 Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) and User Equipment 264 Backhaul Network 270 4 Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure 275 5G Core 283 Functional Components for Network Management 288 Network Services and Digital Platforms 294 Additional analysis of the 6G Technology segment 300 CONCLUSIONS 308 Patenting in Russia 314 Technology segments 316 Recommended further steps (forward-looking projects) 318 About the FIPS Project Office 322 About PJSC Rostelecom 323 Disclaimer 324 Team of authors 325 PJSC Rostelecom 325 FGBU Federal Institute of Industrial Property 325 APPENDICES 326 Appendix A. Abbreviations 328 Appendix B. Terms and Definitions 330 Appendix C. List of Two-Letter Codes of Countries and Agencies 332 Appendix D. Citation map of 5G developers 334 5 Appendix E. List of authors in the Ericsson family (US20170331670) 336 Appendix F. Map of cooperative ties between 5G technology authors 338 Appendix G. List of standards citing the family with the basic publication US20160352551 of Huawei 339 Appendix H. Distribution of families by IPC section 340 6 Dear friends, You are reading a new open patent landscape report prepared by the Project Office of FIPS and Rostelecom – a systemically important Russian telecom operator and the leader of the telecommunications market in Russia and in the former Soviet Union countries. It is no secret that thanks to a breakthrough in communication technologies, the world around us has become a completely different place. The scale of information production and transmission has changed. Technological advances in one segment have provoked fundamental changes across all areas of human life: from the change of communication principles to the emergence of multi-billion businesses relying exclusively on the management of information flows and communication between customers and consumers or network subscribers. The explosive development of communication technologies has unlocked new Grigory IVLIYEV opportunities for scientists, researchers, businesspersons, industrialists, innovators, and visionaries – all those who are not afraid to be the first to Head of the Federal Service for take advantage of technological advances. Intellectual Property (Rospatent) Today the world is on the verge of a new revolution in communication technology. Multiple urban myths have already emerged around 5G, the next-generation communication solution, but global developers of the best technological solutions continue their race of innovation, which will not be stopped by scientifically unjustified fears. Immense amounts of money are currently invested in the development and legal protection of communication technologies and intellectual property in this segment on the global scale, which are comparable to the size of some national economies. This study will help you not only assess the real scale of impending changes and explore strategies of 5G market leaders, but also evaluate the potential new opportunities that 5G technology offers you. I am convinced that this publication will become for you not only an informative reading, but also a professional auxiliary practical tool for mastering new technology and market niches. Enjoy your reading! 7 Dear colleagues, You are reading a report of FIPS and Rostelecom in which we wanted to share with you new ideas, trends and development priorities in the evolution of 5G and 6G technologies, as well as to identify the key competence centers and partners to engage with in this area. The development of these technologies as a fundamental communication infrastructure to digitalize the economy is currently a priority for our nation. It is safe to say that transforming the national economy and ensuring leadership in global technology markets is impossible without the development of national technologies. In this regard, it was important for us to track and assess the efforts of global leaders related to the development of 5G and 6G technologies. Earlier Rostelecom conducted a research on Global Trends, Scenarios of Development and Use of 5G Technology across Industries,1 in which the company comprehensively evaluated the capabilities of 5G technologies and Boris GLAZKOV their potential impact on real sectors of the economy, taking into account the evolution of these technologies. Vice President for Strategic Initiatives PJSC Rostelecom Analytical insights and recommendations were prepared based on the results of the report to inform the national policy on advanced technology, ensure the national technological security and set the direction for 6G development. We currently see an explosive growth in the number of applications for 5G technical patents. The publication activity on this topic over the last five years has grown by 36 times and outperforms such breakthrough areas as quantum technologies and artificial intelligence, second only to blockchain. China’s Huawei is the leader in 5G, with its number of 5G patents almost twice as high as that of its competitors. Qualcomm, Samsung, Ericsson, and BBK Electronics share the second place, followed by AT&T, which actively participates in the development of 3GPP standards as reflected by the performance of their patent asset index. 1 https://www.company.rt.ru/press/news/d455562/ 8 AT&T’s leadership is largely due to the research and development expertise of its laboratories (testing facilities) across 18 American cities, which date back to the joint research centers of AT&T and Bell. The company is building a wide range of 5G-based solutions to develop its own products relying both on its proprietary developments and on combined capabilities of technology leaders such as Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, Ericsson, BBK Electronics, and others. In addition, the world’s first commercial launch of a 5G network in December 2018 in the United States helped the company to build its capabilities and develop new technical solutions. We hope that our research will be an extremely useful source of information for all those interested in advanced communication technologies, and especially for Russian companies conducting or planning to conduct research and development related to 5G and 6G technologies and equipment. We wish you success and a pleasant reading! 9 10 INTRODUCTION 12 Introduction This patent landscape report on 5G/ IMT-2020 Networks and the Evolution to 6G was developed by the Project Office of FIPS together with PJSC Rostelecom. The analytical materials presented in this report are based on patent information, that is information on registered patent applications and granted patents published by patent offices of all world countries. Patent information has a number of qualities that make it an important source of information for identifying technology trends, on the one hand, and for understanding market processes, on the other hand. First of all, we refer to the extent to which technological disclosure is compulsory: patent documents submitted for examination must contain much more detailed technological details to prove the novelty of the proposed technology / product as compared to scientific publications and online descriptions. An important feature of patent information lies in its value stemming from the high costs for protecting the inventions (territories, topics): the more resources a company invests in patenting a technology / product, the more valuable the invention is. A proper analysis of aspects related to the patenting costs of companies allows exploring their business strategies and the potential to commercialize the technologies. Combined with the openness, structure and uniformity of patent documents, patent information is the most important and comprehensive asset in the analysis of modern technology. Patent family has been chosen as the unit of analysis for this study. The patent family is all patent publications that relate to an invention. Patent families