Ten Trends in the Cellular Industry and an Outlook on 6G

With the completion of Release 15 of the 5G standard in early 2018, 2019 has become the first year for the commercialization of 5G. At this stage, it is too early to speculate what key technologies will mark 6G, since it is not known what the drivers for 6G might even be. However, the next generation system typically does not emerge from a vacuum. By examining the industrial and technological trends from previous generations, directions and trajectories associated with each new generation can be discovered. In this article, we shall provide observations regarding these trends and their potential for later releases of 5G and 6G. The goal of this article is to shed light on possible directions of 6G to help researchers jumpstart projects in this field while searching for new directions and breakthroughs.