Use cases, deployment scenarios, key performance indicators and evaluation methodology
Identifies and details key characteristics of relevant use cases, deployment scenarios, key performance indicators and evaluation methodology.
ETSI’s Industry Specification Group on Multiple Access Techniques (ISG MAT) focuses on research and pre-standardisation activity to build a wider industry consensus on new Multiple Access Techniques (MAT) for 6G systems based on 3GPP specifications.
The scope of the ISG covers downlink MAT for the physical layer of the 3GPP radio interface that enhance transmission efficiency (e.g. spectrum efficiency, power consumption, latency, user fairness) of specified approaches.
ETSI ISG MAT is open to ETSI and non-ETSI members and brings together stakeholders from industry, academia and government administrations. The Group’s outputs are offered to 3GPP and other relevant industry bodies for consideration in their own related 6G standardisation activities.
Key areas of work
Study of transmitter and receiver processing structures including complexity aspects
Explores transmitter and receiver processing structures including complexity aspects for candidate MAT for downlink communication taking as baseline the specified transceiver processing in 3GPP 5G.
Study of physical layer procedures
Explores procedures for candidate MAT such as: resource allocation, modulation and coding scheme determination, reception of reference signals, channel state information reporting, and signalling assistance information for interference mitigation advanced receivers.
Study of link level and system level performance
A critical aspect for study is link and system level performance evaluation of candidate MAT using realistic simulation tools that incorporate – for example – imperfect CSIT, UE receiver impairments, different traffic models and relevant quality of service criteria, in the considered deployment environments.
Study of potential specification impact and gaps of new multiple access techniques
Studies and reporting on potential impacts on 3GPP 5G specifications of transmitter and receiver processing and physical layer procedures of candidate MAT.
Proof-of-concepts, prototypes, and field trials
Considers information sharing between members on prototype information of new MAT. Coordinates joint efforts between members to expand their current experiments (e.g. experiments with more users, more antenna elements) or to perform field trials are also in scope of the group.
What we do
ETSI ISG MAT has published a comprehensive study comparing downlink multiple access techniques specified for the physical layer of the 3GPP radio interface i.e. Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA), Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) and Multi-User Superposition Transmission (MUST), against three promising candidate techniques i.e. power domain Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), Rate Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA) and Cache Aided MUMIMO.
A new work item has been approved to revise RGR/MAT-001 (GR) to include additional evaluations, a new call for proposals, and improvements based on feedback from industry.
A further work item has been approved, DGR/MAT-002 (GR), on Low complexity transceiver architectures for high-order SU-MIMO as relevant for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) deployments. The group is also discussing a potential new work item to study the impact of new MAT on Non-terrestrial Networks (NTN) such as satellite systems.
Standards & documents
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ETSI GR MAT 001 V1.1.1 (2026-01) Published
Multiple Access Techniques (MAT); Classification of Candidate Multiple Access Techniques for 6G and their comparison with specified 3GPP features
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For participation inquiries or further information, please contact: [email protected]
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