92 research outputs found
A prospective look: key enabling technologies, applications and open research topics in 6G networks
The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems. This is mainly driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency, ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation (6G) networks, which are expected to bring transformative changes to this premise. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control, computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. In particular, the present paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of 6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by presenting a comprehensive study of the 6G vision and outlining seven of its disruptive technologies, i.e., mmWave communications, terahertz communications, optical wireless communications, programmable metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss the associated requirements, key challenges, and open research problems. These discussions are thereafter used to open up the horizon for future research directions
A Prospective Look: Key Enabling Technologies, Applications and Open Research Topics in 6G Networks
The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora
of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a
diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G
systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems.
This is driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated
systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics
communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective
applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency,
ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives
are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation
(6G) networks. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling
technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental
architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial
intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control,
computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. Particularly,
this paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the
driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of
6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will
they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by
presenting a profound study of the 6G vision and outlining five of its
disruptive technologies, i.e., terahertz communications, programmable
metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and
tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging
the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss their
requirements, key challenges, and open research problems
A Comprehensive Overview on 5G-and-Beyond Networks with UAVs: From Communications to Sensing and Intelligence
Due to the advancements in cellular technologies and the dense deployment of
cellular infrastructure, integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the
fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks is a promising solution to
achieve safe UAV operation as well as enabling diversified applications with
mission-specific payload data delivery. In particular, 5G networks need to
support three typical usage scenarios, namely, enhanced mobile broadband
(eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive
machine-type communications (mMTC). On the one hand, UAVs can be leveraged as
cost-effective aerial platforms to provide ground users with enhanced
communication services by exploiting their high cruising altitude and
controllable maneuverability in three-dimensional (3D) space. On the other
hand, providing such communication services simultaneously for both UAV and
ground users poses new challenges due to the need for ubiquitous 3D signal
coverage as well as the strong air-ground network interference. Besides the
requirement of high-performance wireless communications, the ability to support
effective and efficient sensing as well as network intelligence is also
essential for 5G-and-beyond 3D heterogeneous wireless networks with coexisting
aerial and ground users. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of
the latest research efforts on integrating UAVs into cellular networks, with an
emphasis on how to exploit advanced techniques (e.g., intelligent reflecting
surface, short packet transmission, energy harvesting, joint communication and
radar sensing, and edge intelligence) to meet the diversified service
requirements of next-generation wireless systems. Moreover, we highlight
important directions for further investigation in future work.Comment: Accepted by IEEE JSA
Seven Defining Features of Terahertz (THz) Wireless Systems: A Fellowship of Communication and Sensing
Wireless communication at the terahertz (THz) frequency bands (0.1-10THz) is
viewed as one of the cornerstones of tomorrow's 6G wireless systems. Owing to
the large amount of available bandwidth, THz frequencies can potentially
provide wireless capacity performance gains and enable high-resolution sensing.
However, operating a wireless system at the THz-band is limited by a highly
uncertain channel. Effectively, these channel limitations lead to unreliable
intermittent links as a result of a short communication range, and a high
susceptibility to blockage and molecular absorption. Consequently, such
impediments could disrupt the THz band's promise of high-rate communications
and high-resolution sensing capabilities. In this context, this paper
panoramically examines the steps needed to efficiently deploy and operate
next-generation THz wireless systems that will synergistically support a
fellowship of communication and sensing services. For this purpose, we first
set the stage by describing the fundamentals of the THz frequency band. Based
on these fundamentals, we characterize seven unique defining features of THz
wireless systems: 1) Quasi-opticality of the band, 2) THz-tailored wireless
architectures, 3) Synergy with lower frequency bands, 4) Joint sensing and
communication systems, 5) PHY-layer procedures, 6) Spectrum access techniques,
and 7) Real-time network optimization. These seven defining features allow us
to shed light on how to re-engineer wireless systems as we know them today so
as to make them ready to support THz bands. Furthermore, these features
highlight how THz systems turn every communication challenge into a sensing
opportunity. Ultimately, the goal of this article is to chart a forward-looking
roadmap that exposes the necessary solutions and milestones for enabling THz
frequencies to realize their potential as a game changer for next-generation
wireless systems.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure
- …