NSF US-ALIGNS: Agenda

About every 10 years, the cellular industry develops a new generation of technology, often known as a “G.” The importance of the industry and these G’s is indicated by terms such as “4G LTE” or “5G” being popularly well-known worldwide. This presentation will examine what it means to be successful in a “G,” and some of the factors that lead to success. Particular focus will be on the development of the technical specifications which, from 3G onwards, have been developed by a worldwide partnership of regional standards organizations, called 3GPP. The presentation will include several suggestions on how to enhance the likelihood of success in a “G.”

Wi-Fi stands as one of the most successful communication technologies, with billions of devices deployed over the past three decades and billions more added each year. But how does this technology get standardized? At the core is the IEEE 802.11 standards process—a system that is both rigorous in structure yet uniquely open in participation. Built on a “one-person, one-vote” model and grounded in formal balloting and iterative comment resolution, it has enabled successive generations of backward-compatible wireless technologies that now carry the majority of edge internet traffic worldwide.

This keynote explores how standards emerge in practice: how contributions are shaped, how priorities are set, and how high-level goal-setting documents define each new generation. It also examines the evolving dynamics among industry, academia, and government within the 802.11 ecosystem, and the challenges of the IEEE process.

As Wi-Fi faces its next set of technical challenges, the question is no longer just how standards get made—but timeframes and who shapes them, especially as we enter the era of AI-Native wireless communication. This keynote makes the case for more intentional alignment between advanced sponsored university research and innovation by industry that together anticipate the standards development pipeline many years into the future. Some fundamental questions: Can SDO’s keep up with the rapid evolution of AI/ML technology? Should industry coalitions, which can react more quickly than SDO’s, take a primary role in defining standards? If we do away with the “G’s” such as 4G/5G/6G or Wi-Fi 6/7/8/9, how will consumers know what to buy?

Over the past couple of decades, standards setting has evolved to a mode of “anticipatory standards setting”. In this mode, standards are developed in advance of products and, in some cases, markets for compliant products and services. This has led to dynamics where optionality is built into the standard specification so the standard may remain relevant as markets and business models evolve. Especially for standards that have hardware implications, optionality come at the cost of complexity. As technology becomes more software defined, optionality may provide an avenue for increasing innovation with a lower burden of complexity.

As the world moves toward 6G, AI-native networks, and increasingly interconnected digital infrastructure, the question of who shapes the future of the Internet has become both a technological and geopolitical issue. This presentation examines how standards governance, public-private partnerships, and sustained investment influence global leadership in networking technologies. Drawing on perspectives from open standards organizations, industrial policy models, and the evolution of the Internet itself, the discussion highlights the strengths and weaknesses of different standards ecosystems, the growing strategic role of standards in international competition, and the importance of coordinated U.S. engagement across industry, academia, and government. The presentation also explores the continuing importance of Wi-Fi, open networking, and cloud-native innovation in the broader 6G landscape, while emphasizing that future leadership will depend not only on technical excellence, but on long-term coordination, participation, and shared purpose.