With 6G looming just over the horizon, the work of preparing for the next cellular network is well underway. At LitePoint, we spend a great deal of time focused on the trajectory of new wireless technologies in our conversations with device makers, infrastructure vendors and operators. A key takeaway from those exchanges is that 6G will not arrive in a technological leap, it will evolve from lessons learned during the maturation of the 5G ecosystem.

That perspective framed an industry panel I sat on during the recent Test and Measurement Forum hosted by RCR Wireless News. I was joined by moderator Michael Dieudonne, who is chairman of the European Union’s Test, Measurement, and KPIs Validation (TMV) Working Group, in addition to panelists, Milap Majmundar, director of Advanced RAN Technology at AT&T Labs, and Gagandeep Bhatti, principal standardization lead at Nokia. 

Each guest brought a unique perspective to the table, ranging from operator priorities and standards development to RF validation and interoperability testing. By aggregating those varied viewpoints, we came to a shared conclusion: for 6G deployments to succeed, testing strategies must evolve now.

5G Taught the Industry That Complexity Fuels Cost

One theme that emerged during our discussion was the degree to which the industry underestimated the complexity of 5G testing.

Speaking as a wireless operator, Milap Majmundar observed that the sheer number of optional 5G features created interoperability issues between networks and devices. He advocated for simplified 6G standards with more crisply defined interoperability profiles.

This is a mutual concern and extends well beyond the network core. From an RF perspective, for example, we validate the real-world performance of 5G millimeter wave devices. This is because the industry initially lacked a consensus for governing over-the-air (OTA) test methodologies, chamber configurations and measurement practices. Even once devices reached commercial deployment, challenges such as thermal behavior, tracking failures and coverage inconsistencies continued to emerge.

As we move toward FR3 spectrum in 6G, those same issues are likely to become even more pronounced. FR3 occupies an especially crowded portion of spectrum where cellular technologies will need to coexist with Wi-Fi, satellite services and other incumbent users. That reality places greater importance on validating RF front-end performance early in the design cycle. Long before a modem is fully integrated, engineers need visibility into filter behavior, receiver desensitization, amplifier linearity and signal leakage characteristics.

At LitePoint, one of the biggest 5G lessons we’ve tried to impart is that RF coexistence and interoperability aren’t secondary concerns, they’re foundational to the design process.

Open RAN and AI Are Redefining Interoperability Testing

The conversation shifted to Open RAN and the distributed architectures that will influence 6G deployments. Open interfaces encourage flexibility and innovation, but they also introduce testing burdens that the industry is only beginning to fully appreciate.

Nokia’s Gagandeep Bhatti emphasized that priorities are shifting from static network functions toward more dynamic, AI-driven behavior. This creates a new interoperability dynamic. In deterministic systems, pass-fail testing is relatively straightforward because network behavior is predictable. AI functions such as beam steering, traffic optimization and dynamic resource allocation change that equation as they evolve continuously in response to changing operating conditions.

From an RF perspective, that means validation can no longer focus solely on fixed parameters such as EVM, ACLR and output power. Milap noted that the industry is already defining interoperability profiles within the O-RAN ecosystem but that continued collaboration between operators, infrastructure vendors and test providers will be essential to prevent excessive variability from slowing adoption.

We agree and are already experiencing a rise in customer requests for system-level coexistence and interoperability validation. It’s a trend will only accelerate as AI-driven networks become more adaptive and autonomous.

AI-Native Networks Demand a Different Kind of Testing

As artificial intelligence becomes ingrained within 6G architectures, AI models may behave differently depending on training data, optimization strategies and deployment environments. As Milap noted, models that require continuous retraining, revalidation and recertification can increase computational demands that add to test complexity and costs.

At the same time, AI-native networks are expected to enable new capabilities such as beam steering optimization, dynamic spectrum allocation and traffic-aware network management – all of which depend on adaptive behavior that changes constantly.

For test and measurement companies, this creates an important shift in methodology. Traditional RF validation focused on stable, repeatable operating conditions. Future AI-enabled systems will require engineers to validate a range of expected behaviors rather than a single fixed configuration.

Despite these changes, the laws of physics are immutable. No matter how intelligent the network, RF performance metrics such as EVM, spectral leakage and adjacent channel interference will remain measurable and enforceable. 

In our opinion, that balance between adaptive intelligence and deterministic RF behavior will become one of the defining test challenges of the 6G era.

Energy Efficiency and Sensing Will Shape the Next Generation of Validation

The panel also addressed sustainability and power efficiency given that 6G will emphasize energy-aware network operation, renewable integration and intelligent resource management. 

Gagandeep observed that today’s cellular networks still lack a consistent means for measuring energy efficiency. This speaks to the need for observability across 6G network architectures to measure energy consumption, efficiency and AI-driven optimization. 

It also highlights the role that sensors will to play within 6G networks. Unlike traditional cellular systems, sensor-equipped networks could evolve entirely new operational paradigms where they simultaneously communicate and detect environmental conditions.

Because sensing applications are relatively immature, the industry is still learning which KPIs matter most and what practical limitations exist under real-world conditions. For that reason, early testing and experimentation will play an important role in shaping how sensing technologies can be used to optimize network performance.

Preparing for 6G Starts Now

6G standards may still be in development, but the industry is in a good position to anticipate and address the next wave of testing challenges by learning from the successes and shortcomings of 5G.

At LitePoint, we’re expanding the validation of isolated RF measurements into holistic, system-level testing where we can evaluate interoperability, coexistence, and real-world performance earlier in the development cycle. 

The wireless industry has become very good at building high-performance radios. The next challenge is ensuring those radios operate reliably within increasingly intelligent, distributed and adaptive systems.