Title: A vision of 6G: technology trends, potential applications, challenges and future roadmap

Authors: Syed Agha Hassnain Mohsan; Nawaf Qasem Hamood Othman; Abdallah Faisal Abdallah Mohamed; Alireza Mazinani; Hussain Amjad

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad, Pakistan ' School of Telecommunications Engineering, Xidian University, Xi'an, China ' Department of Information and Communication Engineering, HOHAI University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China ' School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China ' Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Xihu, Hangzhou, China

Abstract: The ongoing research on 5G has exposed several inherent drawbacks. These limitations of 5G have spurred global research activities to focus on future 6G technology. The fundamental architecture and performance requirements of 6G are yet to be explored. In present world, the academic research and industrial synergy is accelerating to conceptualise 6G. The widespread applications of blockchain, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have driven the need of emerging 6G technology. We opine it will bring technological trends by exciting services and applications. We envisage 6G as an ultra-dense heterogeneous, highly dynamic and innately intelligent network. This study presents a holistic vision which enables tenets of 6G. Generally, the intent of this extant study is to highlight open challenges, practical considerations and future roadmap. In this regard, we believe this review will be helpful to aggregate the research efforts and eliminate the technical uncertainties towards breakthrough novelties of 6G.

Keywords: 5G; 6G; blockchain; IoT; mobile networks; internet of everything; ubiquitous connectivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2021.121535

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2021 Vol.67 No.2/3, pp.275 - 288

Received: 10 Oct 2020
Accepted: 23 Jan 2021

Published online: 17 Mar 2022 *

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