6G Fabric Compiles Microdomains for Sophisticated Service Delivery [From the Guest Editors]

While the industry is exploring the key drivers and future needs of 6G cellular communication systems, 6G research is in full swing, globally supported by large programs. As a result, many new technologies are being proposed. This could be noticed in various fora and publications that convey new visions for the verticals that 6G would serve and the key elements that could make this happen. New radio and optical wireless access technologies for 3D coverage, new waveforms, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), edge–cloud supported by AI, joint communication and sensing, optical fiber networks, nonterrestrial network (NTN) integration, new network architectures, trusted computing platforms, quantum communications, and digital twin provisioning systems are some of many technology enablers for 6G. However, 6G will support many more vertical industries. This requires defining a new model for network infrastructures that builds on 5G architectures and designs, especially private networks and open networking. This means that operating minor networks independently at their local domains and allowing separated domains to handle services without centralized management may become more mainstream. AI and ML will become important enablers for future network management and control. This segregation within the mobile network architecture allows AI-driven components to maximally utilize resources at their local domain. In addition, minor domains would be able to decompose service requests to reduce operational cost incurred by the network. This network modeling takes advantage of fully automated elements and services that could be onboarded upon user demand for more efficient networks that fully utilize resources in a cost-efficient manner. Therefore, operators and vendors need to work closely with network planning engineers and academia to bring such designs into reality.