Towards sustainable industry 4.0: A survey on greening IoE in 6G networks

Abstract

The dramatic recent increase of the smart Internet of Everything (IoE) in Industry 4.0 has significantly increased energy consumption, carbon emissions, and global warming. IoE applications in Industry 4.0 face many challenges, including energy efficiency, heterogeneity, security, interoperability, and centralization. Therefore, Industry 4.0 in Beyond the Sixth-Generation (6G) networks demands moving to sustainable, green IoE and identifying efficient and emerging technologies to overcome sustainability challenges. Many advanced technologies and strategies efficiently solve issues by enhancing connectivity, interoperability, security, decentralization, and reliability. Greening IoE is a promising approach that focuses on improving energy efficiency, providing a high Quality of Service (QoS), and reducing carbon emissions to enhance the quality of life at a low cost. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of how advanced technologies can contribute to green IoE in the 6G network of Industry 4.0 applications. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of advanced technologies, including Blockchain, Digital Twins (DTs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, a.k.a. drones), and Machine Learning (ML), to improve connectivity, QoS, and energy efficiency for green IoE in 6G networks. We evaluate the capability of each technology in greening IoE in Industry 4.0 applications and analyse the challenges and opportunities to make IoE greener using the discussed technologies.