Innovative Trends in the 6G Era: A Comprehensive Survey of Architecture, Applications, Technologies, and Challenges

TLDR

While 5G is being commercialized worldwide, 6G is emerging as a next‑generation platform aimed at higher coverage, spectral efficiency, sustainability, and integration of terrestrial, space, and underwater networks, yet its architecture and technology remain largely undefined. The study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the architectural, technological, and challenge landscape that will shape 6G. The survey offers insights that can guide future research into 6G ecosystems.

Abstract

While the fifth-generation mobile network is being commercialized worldwide, researchers have recently started looking towards the next generation, called the 6G network. Unlike 5G and previous generations of wireless technologies designed to improve network performance for greater bandwidth, lower latency and greater reliability, 6G ecosystems is considered a platform conducive to innovations in the fields of computing, artificial intelligence, connectivity and sensors, virtualization and more. It is designed to meet the requirements of higher global coverage, greater spectral efficiency, a reduced carbon footprint, with an emphasis on sustainability, equity, trust and security through unprecedented architectural evolutions and technology. 6G will be an integrated network system that includes a traditional terrestrial mobile network, space network, and underwater network to provide ubiquitous network access. Even if there are studies on vision of 6G network that have already been published, there is still a significant amount of ground to cover. There is no decision made yet regarding anything and nothing has been ruled out. The focus of this study is to identify a complete picture of changes in architectures, technologies, and challenges that will shape the 6G network. We hope the research results will provide indications for further studies on 6G ecosystems.