Executive summary of the SG13 meeting

​​​SG13: Future networks and emerging network technologies​​

Executive summary of the SG13 meeting
3-14 March 2025, Geneva, Switzerland

Called up by the Collec​tive-letter 1/13 (of 18 November 2024), this SG13 meeting was the first in the 2025 – 2028 Study Period. The mandate and the list of Questions under study as approved by the WTSA-24 are found in SG13-C1. The meeting agreed on the SG structure to organize the work and on appointment of SG13 Working Parties chairs, vice-chairs, Rapporteurs, Associate Rapporteurs and Liaison Rapporteurs.

This SG13 meeting attracted 366 delegates (238 remote only and 128 present in person) and considered 825 documents split as 276 contributions and 549 TDs. List of contributions may be found in TD8/PLEN.

The opening remarks were delivered by the TSB Director, Mr Seizo Onoe, at the opening SG13 plenary, who, in particular, welcomed the ten new SG13 vice-chairs, furthermore he said that he was delighted to see an increase in active participation with 276 contributions (compared to an average of 236 over the last 6 meetings). The closing remarks were given at the closing SG13 plenary by the deputy to the TSB Director, Mr Bilel Jamoussi. He mentioned that the 2025 is an international Year of Quantum and that there has been a 5 years anniversary of SG13 work with the remote participation support which is nowadays considered as a new normal and appreciated very much by the delegates.

TSB MyMeetings platform for remote participation was used to support each session at this Study Group meeting resulting in 260 sessions in total.

Main meeting results

22 outputs were approved/determined/consented/agreed: a total of 15 new Recommendations and one revised Recommendation were consented, two new Recommendations were approved, one new Recommendation was determined. In addition, one Supplement and two technical reports were agreed.

Study Group structure and Wo​rking Parties leadership

WP	Title	Questions	WP chair​
			WP vice-chairs
1/13	IMT systems	20, 21, 23	Mohannad El-Megharbel (National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Egypt) - chair
			Lu Lu, (China Mobile, China) - vice-chair
2/13	Cloud computing and data handling	17, 18, 19	Kangchan Lee (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Republic of Korea) - chair
			Obid Asadov (Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications, Uzbekistan) - vice-chair
3/13	Future networks	2, 7, 22	Yuan Zhang (China Telecom, China) – chair Soumaya Benbartaoui (Algeria Telecom/Group Telecom Algeria, Algeria) – vice-chair
4/13	Scenarios, deployment and technologies	1, 5, 6, 16	João Alexandre Moncaio Zanon (Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (ANATEL), Brazil) - chair
			Elliot Kabalo (Zambia Information & Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA), Zambia) and Jiguang Cao (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China) – vice-chairs

Study Group 13 stays with the same numbering of Questions as in the previous study period.

Recommendations approved (Resolution 1 - TAP)

Result of the Member State consultation on approving draft new Recommendation Y.2348 "Functional architecture of network resource sharing based on distributed ledger technology" is given in TD6/PLEN.
TD25/PLEN provides the results of the Member State consultation on approving draft new Recommendation Y.3211 "Fixed, mobile and satellite convergence - Requirements of supporting airborne broadband communication for IMT-2020 networks and beyond”.
SG13 approved the new Recommendation ITU-T Y.2348 at the opening plenary on 3 March 2025 and the new Recommendation ITU-T Y.3211 at the interim plenary on 10 March 2025.

TSB circular 38 (dated 27 March 2025) announces the approval of both Recommendations.

Recommendation determined (Resolution 1 - TAP)​

Recommendations consented for Last Call (Recommendation A.8 - AAP)

* On 10 March 2025 ETRI submitted the generic patent declaration for the draft revised Recommendation ITU-T Y.3804 “Quantum key distribution networks - Control and management”. This information was duly registered in the ITU-T patents declaration database.

The AAP Last Call for the abovementioned 16 draft Recommendations started on 1 April 2025.

Sup​plement agreed to (Recommendation A.13)

Technical Reports agreed to (Recommendation A.13)

Questionnaire agreed for dissemination

TSB Circular 37 (dated 27 March 2025) invites representatives from the developing countries, as well as all the Members, to participate in the survey before end of June 2025.

Important decisions (apart of Recommendations/Deliverables)

Organization of the work
The meeting recognized the priorities for study as IMT systems, data handling, scenarios, deployment and technologies as well as future networks and implemented that in the SG13 structure for this study period.

Additional appointments

-      SG13 gave a favourable reply to the request from the SG13RG-AFR and appointed Mr Mohammed Kyari Mustafa (Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigeria) as a new SG13RG-AFR vice-chair. Mr Mustafa will replace at that post Mr Brice Murara (RURA, Rwanda), the SG13RG-AFR vice-chair, who had to leave SG13 activities.
-      Ms Ying Cheng (China Unicom, China) was appointed the new JCA-IMT2020 chair to replace Mr Scott Mansfield (Ericsson, Canada), who had to leave JCA-IMT2020 chairship. All the efforts, experience and dedication Mr Mansfield demonstrated while leading JCA-IMT2020 since its establishment back in 2017, were well recognized and much appreciated.
-      Mr Nanxiang Shi (China Mobile, China), a new JCA-IMT2020 vice-chair, was nominated to support Ms Cheng driving the JCA-IMT2020.
-      The SG13 meeting confirmed Mr Alojz Hudobivnik (Slovenia) to be the SG13 Mentor as in the last study period.
-      The meeting confirmed the Liaison Coordination functions to be performed by Mr Konstantin Trofimov (Russian Federation) as in the previous study period.
-      Mr Kazunori Tanikawa (NICT Japan) stood in to perform the Acting WP3/13 chair function for WP3/13 opening plenary with authorization of the SG13 opening plenary doing so.
-      Ms Xiaojia Song (China Mobile) was appointed as the CG-Trust co-convener from the SG13 side.
-      Mr Kazunori TANIKAWA (NICT, Japan) and Ms Rim Belhassine-Cherif (Tunisia Telecom, Tunisia) were nominated as conveners of the CG-SG13ftr.

The efforts of all those, who accepted the important roles in SG13, including WP leaders and Rapporteurs were recognized and appreciated.

WTSA-24 decisions implementation and follow up
In response to the WTSA-24 Resolution 92 (IMT) SG13 will continue annual publication of the revised Supplement 59 “IMT-2020 and Beyond standardization roadmap”. This is a snapshot of the online version of the IMT2020 and Beyond roadmap, maintained by the JCA-IMT2020. The online roadmap as well as the work of JCA on IMT-2020 and Beyond will be also continuing and promoted as well as IMT standardization activities in ITU-T. The standardization work, related to the non-radio aspects of IMT systems, will continue to be shared with relevant groups of ITU-R, ITU-D and external organizations, including through the coordination efforts of JCA-IMT2020.
In response to the WTSA-24 Resolution 94 the group reconfirmed the need in contributions on the cloud-based event data technology aspects to advance the work.
The meeting reviewed the outcomes, decisions and statistics of the WTSA-24, TD21/PLEN.
WTSA-24 entrusted SG13 13 Questions for study (SG13-C1) that will follow the AAP path each.

Coordination activities 

Creation of the new Correspondence Group on SG13 future direction (CG-SG13ftr)
TD23/PLEN, by the SG13 chair, brought the proposal to start the new Correspondence Group on SG13 future direction (CG-SG13ftr) on supporting the effective and efficient conduct of standardization work on future networks. SG13 touched base on such group creation at the previous, July 2024, SG13 meeting.
After a short discussion, the meeting agreed to launch the group with the Terms of Reference as shown in TD23-R1/PLEN and conveners being Mr Kazunori TANIKAWA (NICT, Japan) and Ms Rim Belhassine-Cherif (Tunisia Telecom, Tunisia). CG is supposed to run until the end of 2026.
In addition, participants agreed to the proposal from the floor to have a kick-off meeting of the new CG already during the March SG13 meeting. To this end, the first meeting of the CG-SG13ftr took place on 10 March 2025 chaired by the co-convener, Mr Kazunori Tanikawa. The meeting had a productive brainstorming exercise that resulted in collection of the topics for future discussions, some technical particularities and operation of the group. Report of the CG-SG13ftr meeting may be found in TD81/GEN.

JCA-IMT2020
The regular JCA-IMT2020 meeting took place on 5 March 2025 alongside this SG13 meeting. It was chaired by the new JCA-IMT2020 chair, Ms Ying Cheng (China Unicom, China) with the support of the new JCA-IMT2020 vice-chair, Mr Nanxiang Shi (China Mobile, China). Appreciation and round of applauses were extended to the former JCA-IMT2020 chair, Mr Scott Mansfield (Ericsson, Canada), who inspired and led the group since 2017.
As custom, the meeting agreed on a big number of new Recommendations, Supplements and technical specifications to be included into its ongoing project IMT-2020 and beyond roadmap.
The JCA-IMT2020 touched base on how the work on IMT-2030 will fit this group and agreed to invite to the next meeting the inputs on IMT-2030 and revision to the JCA-IMT2020 Terms of Reference to include IMT-2030 into the scope. In the same direction, the agreement was reached to change the name of JCA at the next meeting.
The next JCA-IMT2020 meeting will take place on 16 July 2025 in Geneva alongside the SG13 co-located rapporteur group meetings.

JCA-ML
The 7^th meeting of the JCA-ML took place on 7 March 2025 alongside this SG13 meeting.

It was chaired by Mr Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Republic of Koea), the JCA-ML chair, with the support of Mr Marco Carugi (Huawei Technologies, China), JCA-ML vice-chair. The meeting advanced the work on its two projects, the roadmap and glossary of terms, based on the inputs received:

-      Machine learning standardization roadmap (Editor: Mr Sungpil Shin, ETRI, Republic of Korea) and
-      Glossary of terms and definitions for machine learning (Editor: Mr Hongki Cha, ETRI Republic of Korea)

Departing from the discussions at the last JCA-ML meeting (November 2024) the group assessed the proposal from the group’s management team to revise its Terms of Reference and change the group’s name to Joint Coordination Activity on Artificial Intelligence, including Machine Learning (JCA-AI/ML). Acknowledging that this proposal is in line with the new SG13 Lead Study Group role on artificial intelligence, including machine learning for future networks​, this proposal was supported by the meeting and agreed.

JCA-ML informed SG13 about this decision via the regular JCA progress report, TD34/PLEN, as well as by a stand-alone request to SG13 to approve the revised ToR and name for JCA-ML (see TD35/PLEN).

Group will continue to operate under the chairship of Mr Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Republic of Korea) supported by the vice-chair, Mr Marco Carugi (Huawei, China).
The next JCA-ML meeting will take place on 18 July 2025 during the SG13 co-located rapporteur group meetings in Geneva.

New work items coordination
Since March 2023 SG13 has been convening the new work items coordination sessions, the approach to assess the proposals for the new work in their entirety. In March 2025 SG13 had three sessions (4, 5, 6 March 2025) for exchanging the opinions on the new work proposed for starting at this meeting. The agenda was crafted by the SG13 chair, Mr Kazunori Tanikawa (NICT, Japan), who convened the meeting. The report may be found in TD78/GEN.

Disposition of draft new Recommendation Y.2086 “Framework and Requirements of Decentralized Trustworthy Network Infrastructure”

The SG13 chair announced its decision that the issue with the draft new Recommendation ITU-T Y.2086 “Framework and Requirements of Decentralized Trustworthy Network Infrastructure” will be closed at October meeting. Therefore, this Recommendation will be taken for decision at one of the plenary sessions at SG13 October 2025 meeting in Geneva.

C268 from China Telecom and Huawei Technologies proposed to start at this meeting the new work item, Technical Report, based on the above Recommendation text. However, such proposal met strong resistance and was not agreed for launch.

Collaboration​

CQR - Quantum resistance related studies
Proposed at the previous SG13 meeting (July 2024) the new collaboration between SG13 and SG17 on quantum resistance-related study (CQR) among Q6/13, Q16/13 and Q15/17, similar to former CQ activity (CQ – co-located quantum), was confirmed by the SG17. In its reply liaison statement SG17 proposed to add Q11/17 to the basket. SG13 agreed this extended composition of the new collaboration activity (CQR).
The kick-off CQR meeting was convened though on 10 March 2025 among Qs 6/13, 16/13 and 11/17, 15/17. It reviewed some ongoing work in these Questions related to CQR aspects and requested to prepare input contributions to make guidance for clear boundaries between SGs for effective coordination and collaboration.

Concerning the chairing the CQR meetings, the meeting agreed:

-    Mr Gyu Myoung Lee (Q16/13 rapporteur) will chair CQR meetings during SG13 meetings;
-    Mr Kaoru Kenyoshi (Q15/17 rapporteur) will chair CQR meetings during SG17 meeting.

Based on progress, if necessary, the CQR meeting may invite the other groups, such as SG11, to join in the future.
The report of the kick-off CQR activity may be found in TD101-R1/WP4. The first meeting of the CQR group was planned for April 2025 during SG17 meeting.

Quantum INdustrial Standard Association (QuINSA)
Regarding the relationship with the newly created Quantum INdustrial Standard Association (QuINSA) (proposal in TD40/WP4), the Liaison Statements exchange mode was thought a good approach at this initial stage of interaction with this new group. To this end, SG13 developed the reply communication to QuINSA, laid out in TD45-R1/PLEN Annex 7.

TSAG consultation on AAP comments
In reply to the request from TSAG “LS/i on the resolution of AAP comments” (TD11/PLEN), SG13 has asked TSAG to consider shorten the 6 weeks period for LC/AR commenter reply. Corresponding Liaison Statement back to TSAG was agreed, TD30-R1/PLEN.

Ad-hoc and correspondence group activities
Correspondence Group for datasets applicable for AI/ML in networks (CG-datasets)
CG-datasets had a meeting alongside this SG13 meeting on 6 March 2025 to pursue its mandate.

Ad-hoc “Future ICT Evolution for emerging Web Era” (Web3 ad-hoc)
Web3 ad-hoc met alongside this SG13 meeting on 10 March 2025. It was the last meeting of the group. Group considered four contributions towards the Technical Report on Trustworthy Data Infrastructure for Web 3.0, and two contributions for the Technical Report on Network enhancement for supporting emerging Web technologies. (Detailed discussions on both deliverables, based on the submitted contributions, took place in the Questions 16/13 and 22/13 sessions; results may be found in TD117-R1/WP4 and TD76/WP3 respectively.) In addition, based on C119 from KAIST, the ad-hoc meeting also briefly reviewed several new work items for trustworthy digital asset trading to be considered for future standardization. Summary of the meeting may be found in clause 3.6 of TD46/PLEN.

Bridging Standardization Gap (BSG)
The SG13 Regional Group for Africa (SG13RG-AFR) will continue its work in this study period under the Term of Reference as approved at October-November 2023 SG13 meeting.

SG13RG-AFR convened its regular (annual) meeting on 30 January 2025 in a virtual format. Presenting the report of that meeting at the SG13 plenary, the SG13RG-AFR chair, Ms Rim Belhassine-Cherif (Tunisia Telecom), highlighted, in particular, the objectives for SG13RG-AFR for the new study period, aligned with the WTSA-24 outcomes, updates to the group’s action plan and the request from the SG13RG-AFR to SG13 to appoint the new SG13RG-AFR vice-chair, Mr Mohammed Kyari Mustafa (Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigeria). Mr Mustafa replaces Mr Brice Murara (RURA, Rwanda), the SG13RG-AFR vice-chair, who had to leave SG13 activities.

The SG13 meeting participants approved the SG13RG-AFR meeting report in TD26/PLEN. The SG chair extended his appreciation to the group leader. Canada joined him in this appreciation and expressed appreciation to the SG13RG-AFR in general.
Next meeting of the SG13 Regional Group for Africa is planned as virtual two-days activity in 4^th quarter of 2025. The meeting may be preceded by the virtual workshop. Hosts are welcome to identify themselves in order to give an opportunity for the SG13RG-AFR to meet next time in person.
The SG13 Regional Group for Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Transcaucasia (SG13RG-EECAT) will continue its work in this study period. The meeting plans for SG13RG-EECAT, however, were not activated yet.
BSG hands-on training session was offered by TSB to the SG13 delegates on 6 March 2025. Session was opened to every SG13 participant and followed by 48 delegates. Presented material may be found in TD67/GEN. Delegates expressed appreciation for acquired knowledge.

Progress reports

Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence Native for Telecommunication Networks ​(FG-AINN) ​
FG-AINN reported its activities and results of the first meeting in TD22/PLEN. The meeting noted the FG-AINN organization of the work, vice-chairs appointment and progress to date, reached via the weekly conference calls. The group established the communication channel with ETSI ISG ENI group and dispatched liaison statements to ITU-T Study Groups and some SDOs. It set up priorities for its work and the delivery plan. Participants were invited to join the weekly e-meetings of the FG-AINN to advance its work and to the next physical meeting of the group in Istanbul, Türkiye, 14-15 April 2025.

Ad-hoc “Future ICT Evolution for emerging Web Era” (Web3 ad-hoc) and conclusion of its duties
The ad-hoc “Future ICT Evolution for emerging Web Era” (Web3 ad-hoc) presented its progress to date in TD46/PLEN. Mr Gyu Myoung Lee (Republic of Korea), the ad-hoc co-convener, walked the participants through this report that covers the activities and achievements since July 2024. Ad-hoc met 6 times in the reported period and had a good progress on its two technical reports (developed per group’s ToR). The SG13 meeting reviewed and noted with satisfaction the progress achieved by the ad-hoc Web3, TD46/PLEN. With this the ad-hoc exhausted its mandate and concluded its activities. The two deliverables, Technical Report on Trustworthy Data Infrastructure for Web 3.0, and Technical Report on Network enhancement for supporting emerging Web technologies, were entrusted to the SG13 Q16/13 and Q22/13 respectively for further work and agreement for publication. The SG13 chair, on behalf of the SG13, expressed his deep appreciation to the co-conveners, Mr Gyu Myoung Lee (Republic of Korea) and Ms Jingwen Li (China Telecom, China), as well as to all the participants, who took part in deliberations of the group, for the two technical reports delivery.

Joint Coordination Activity on Artificial Intelligence, including Machine Learning​ (JCA-AI/ML) and its new name and Terms of Reference
The chair of the JCA-ML, Mr Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Republic of Korea), reported the progress of his group by presenting TD34/PLEN. This document captures the outcomes since the group’s first meeting in March 2023.
The meeting reviewed the progress of the JCA-ML along with the request from the group to change its name and ToR (in TD35/PLEN). SG13 agreed the JCA-AI/ML operation with the revised ToR and new name as depicted in TD35/PLEN, Appendix I, and dispatched the Liaison Statement to TSAG (for action) and ITU-SGs informing about this decision, TD36-R1/PLEN.
The progress report by JCA-ML (TD34/PLEN) was well received and noted by the meeting.

Outreach
Information session

A regular newcomer session presentation was delivered by the SG13 Mentor, Mr Alojz Hudobivnik, on 3 March 2025. It attracted 22 live and 30 remote participants. Presented material is available from TD66/GEN.

Questionnaire
A new Questionnaire on Use Cases of services universalization in developing countries using open networks and AI models (in support of the work in Q5/13) was agreed for dissemination at this meeting, TD68/PLEN. It went live via the TSB Circular 235​, is available at the SG13 homepage, accepts replies until 30 June 2025 and welcomes input from any ITU member.

Roadmaps
SG13 continues its work on

• Supplement Y.sup.cnc-roadmap "Roadmap of coordination of networking and computing in IMT-2020 networks and beyond", TD43/WP1, target for completion in 4Q/2026
• Supplement Y.supp.fmsc-ro map "Fixed, mobile and satellite convergence - Standardization roadmap", TD60/WP1, target for 4Q/2026
• Supplement Y.Suppl.CPN-SR to Y.2500-series with the roadmap of computing power network, TD44/WP3, target for July 2025 
• and started the work on new
• Supplement Y.supp.trust-roadmap "Standardization roadmap on trustworthy networking and services for study period 2025", TD119/WP4, target for October 2028
  
• Supplement Y.sup.mlsr to ITU-T Y.3000-series "Machine Learning Standardization Roadmap", TD56/WP2, target for 4Q/2025   
• admap "Fixed, mobile and satellite convergence - Standardization roadmap", TD60/WP1, target for 4Q/2026
• Supplement Y.Suppl.CPN-SR to Y.2500-series with the roadmap of computing power network, TD44/WP3, target for July 2025 

and started the work on new

• Supplement Y.supp.trust-roadmap "Standardization roadmap on trustworthy networking and services for study period 2025", TD119/WP4, target for October 2028
• Supplement Y.sup.mlsr to ITU-T Y.3000-series "Machine Learning Standardization Roadmap", TD56/WP2, target for 4Q/2025    ​
  

 

​Terminology
SG13 has ongoing project on terminology for IMT-2030:

• ​Technical Report ITU-T TR.IMT2030-terms "IMT-2030 networks - Considerations on terms and definitions", TD54/WP1, target for completion in 4Q/2026