Abstract
Technology forecasts anticipate a new era in which massive numbers of humans, machines, and things are connected to wireless networks to sense, process, act, and communicate with the surrounding environment in a real-time manner. To make the visions come true, the sixth generation (6G) wireless networks should be hyper-connected, implying that there are no constraints on the data rate, coverage, and computing. In this article, we first identify the main challenges for 6G hyper-connectivity, including terabits-per-second (Tbps) data rates for immersive user experiences, zero coverage-hole networks, and pervasive computing for connected intelligence. To overcome these challenges, we highlight key enabling technologies for 6G such as distributed and intelligence-aware cell-free massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) networks, boundless and fully integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, and communication-aware distributed computing for computation-intensive applications. We further illustrate and discuss the hyper-connected 6G network architecture along with open issues and future research directions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 344-354 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Communications and Networks |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2023 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Information Systems
- Computer Networks and Communications
Keywords
- 6G hyper-connectivity
- cell-free massive MIMO
- non-terrestrial networks
- over-the-air distributed computing
- scalable deep learning
- terahertz communications