Название: A Fresh Concept of Software-resemblant Hardware to Leap to 6G and Future Networks: Micro/Nanotechnologies as Enablers of Pervasivity
Автор: Jacopo Iannacci
Издательство: River Publishers
Год: 2024
Страниц: 130
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.1 MB

For a decade, with the uptake of 4G, we have become accustomed to the relentless increase in data and services on the move. The deployment of 5G is advancing crucial key performance indicators (KPIs), along with quality of service (QoS). Setting the horizon to 2030 and later, 6G will take the KPIs to numbers 100–1000 times better than 5G. Yet, the actual disruption of 6G and future networks (FN) will take place following other unprecedented paths.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be exploited in a threadlike fashion, at any level of the network physical infrastructure. This will introduce, to date unknown features, like self-sustaining, self-evolution and high-resilience of small portions of the infrastructure, pioneering the concept of a network of networks. Each segment of the infrastructure will bear a high degree of independence, while working at the same time as a whole, in full orchestration with the rest of the network.

Given such a scenario, this book claims that the established and currently in use paradigms for the design and development of hardware–software (HW–SW) systems, are not appropriate to address the challenges of 6G and, further ahead, of FN. In response, unprecedented design approaches are suggested, relying on a fresh reinterpretation of the standard concept of HW, with specific attention to the network edge and edge intelligence (EI).

Microtechnologies and nanotechnologies, intended with a broad meaning, which includes devices, systems (MEMS/NEMS) and materials, are identified as a crucial asset to trigger a new field of convergence, in which miniaturized HW components can be merged with AI technologies, helping to draw the paint of 6G and FN, still unknown to a relevant extent. In addition, the new paradigm of quantum computing is embodied in the discussion around the emerging quantum technologies. The impact of the unprecedented approaches discussed in this work is expected to be so significant that a reformulation of the same concept of HW is offered.

This work develops some conceptual tools that may help address the technical challenges resulting from the intricate scenario sketched above. Within the mentioned HW reconceptualization, a pivotal role is forecasted for microtechnologies and nanotechnologies, intended with a broad meaning, which embraces, among others, devices, systems (MEMS/NEMS) and materials.