Next-generation of the cellular network will attempt to overcome the limitations of the current Fifth Generation (5G) networks and equip itself to address the challenges which become obvious in the future. Currently, academia and industry have focused their attention on the Sixth Generation (6G) network, which is anticipated to be the next big game-changer in the telecom industry. The outbreak of COVID’19 has made the whole world to opt for virtual meetings, live video interactions ranging from healthcare, business to education. However, we miss an immersive experience due to the lack of supporting technology. Experts have anticipated that starting from the post-pandemic age, the performance requirements of technology for virtual and real-time communication, the rise of several verticals such as industrial automation, robotics, and autonomous driving will increase tremendously, and will skyrocket during the next decade. In this manuscript, we study the latest perspectives and future megatrends that are most likely to drive 6G. Initially, we describe the instances that lead us to the vision of 6G. Later, we narrate some of the use cases and the KPIs essential to meet their performance requirement. Further, we highlight the key requirements of 6G based on contemporary research such as UN sustainability goals, business model, edge intelligence, digital divide, and the trends in machine learning for 6G.

/pdf/6g-ecosystem-current-status-and-future-perspective-qbffuyw5z7.pdf

6G Ecosystem: Current Status and Future Perspective

The sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication network is expected to integrate the terrestrial, aerial, and maritime communications into a robust network which would be more reliable, fast, and can support a massive number of devices with ultra-low latency requirements. The researchers around the globe are proposing cutting edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), quantum communication/quantum machine learning (QML), blockchain, tera-Hertz and millimeter waves communication, tactile Internet, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), small cells communication, fog/edge computing, etc., as the key technologies in the realization of beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G communications. In this article, we provide a detailed overview of the 6G network dimensions with air interface and associated potential technologies. More specifically, we highlight the use cases and applications of the proposed 6G networks in various dimensions. Furthermore, we also discuss the key performance indicators (KPI) for the B5G/6G network, challenges, and future research opportunities in this domain.

/pdf/the-shift-to-6g-communications-vision-and-requirements-u3ltn2x4jr.pdf

The shift to 6G communications: vision and requirements

The commercial fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications networks have already been deployed with the aim of providing high data rates. However, the rapid growth in the number of smart devices and the emergence of the Internet of Everything (IoE) applications, which require an ultra-reliable and low-latency communication, will result in a substantial burden on the 5G wireless networks. As such, the data rate that could be supplied by 5G networks will unlikely sustain the enormous ongoing data traffic explosion. This has motivated research into continuing to advance the existing wireless networks toward the future generation of cellular systems, known as sixth generation (6G). Therefore, it is essential to provide a prospective vision of the 6G and the key enabling technologies for realizing future networks. To this end, this paper presents a comprehensive review/survey of the future evolution of 6G networks. Specifically, the objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive review/survey about the key enabling technologies for 6G networks, which include a discussion about the main operation principles of each technology, envisioned potential applications, current state-of-the-art research, and the related technical challenges. Overall, this paper provides useful information for industries and academic researchers and discusses the potentials for opening up new research directions.

6G Wireless Communications Networks: A Comprehensive Survey

The Shift to 6G Communications: Vision and Requirements

6G: A comprehensive survey on technologies, applications, challenges, and research problems

Service-aware 6G: An intelligent and open network based on the convergence of communication, computing and caching

The next generation of wireless networks faces the challenges of the explosion of mobile data traffic, the associated power consumption, and operation cost. The centralized radio access networks (Centralized RANs) architectures have been proposed to reduce the power consumption and the network operating cost. By integrating many distributed base stations’ processing resources in a processing pool and sharing processing resources on demand, the overall required processing resources for the Centralized RAN can be reduced compared to the conventional RAN. This can be measured by the statistical multiplexing gain (SMG). However, most of the SMG analysis only considered the temporal traffic distribution which is not suitable for the current mobile networks. In this paper, we analyze the SMG of processing resources based on a temporal–spatial joint traffic distribution model, which considers the mobile data traffic distribution both in the time and space domains. Based on this model, we derive a formula for the SMG and also a closed-form approximation for that when the spatial traffic distribution is lognormal distribution. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the SMG increases with the service threshold ratio ${P_{\mathrm{th}}}$ , but the growth trend of SMG for different area types is not always the same. We also find that the traffic distribution parameters, such as the standard deviation of the lognormal distribution variable’s natural logarithm, have a significant influence on the SMG.

/pdf/statistical-multiplexing-gain-analysis-of-processing-19tmo9vbem.pdf

Xinyu Cui

Papers

Service-aware 6G: An intelligent and open network based on the convergence of communication, computing and caching

Statistical Multiplexing Gain Analysis of Processing Resources in Centralized Radio Access Networks