6G System architecture: A service of services vision

Abstract

The architectures of mobile networks have seen an unprecedented techno-economic transformation, fusing the telcommunications world within the cloud world, adding the spices of Software Engineering to the overall system design, and ultimately yielding the concept of Telco Cloud. This has brought significant benefits in terms of reducing expenditure and operational costs, flexibility in deployment, and a faster time to market. The key enablers are network function virtualization, software-defined networking, and edge/cloud computing. Artificial intelligence is also kicking in this arena. When all these technologies are well integrated, the creation and life-cycle management of fully programmable, flexible, service-tailored, and automated end-to-end network slices/services become possible. This will support diverse 5G and beyond 5G services, spanning from tactile IoT to pervasive robotics and immersive services. This paper introduces an unprecedented and disruptive vision for 6G that shifts the perception of future mobile networks from the old-fashioned concept of "network of networks" towards a new vision of "service of services." The paper then introduces the functional model of the envisioned system architecture, along with its components. It then provides a high-level description of the logical architecture.