6G-BRICKS: Building Reusable Testbed Infrastructures for Cloud-to-Device Breakthrough Technologies
Author
Abstract

Sixth generation (6G)-enabled massive network MANO orchestration, alongside distributed supervision and fully reconfigurable control logic that manages dynamic arrangement of network components, such as cell-free, Open-Air Interface (OAI) and RIS, is a potent enabler for the upcoming pervasive digitalization of the vertical use cases. In such a disruptive domain, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven zero-touch “Network of Networks” intent-based automation shall be able to guarantee a high degree of security, efficiency, scalability, and sustainability, especially in cross-domain and interoperable deployment environments (i.e., where points of presence (PoPs) are non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID)). To this extent, this paper presents a novel breakthrough, open, and fully reconfigurable networking architecture for 6G cellular paradigms, named 6G-BRICKS. To this end, 6G-BRICKS will deliver the first open and programmable O-RAN Radio Unit (RU) for 6G networks, termed as the OpenRU, based on an NI USRP-based platform. Moreover, 6G-BRICKS will integrate the RIS concept into the OAI alongside Testing as a Service (TaaS) capabilities, multi-tenancy, disaggregated Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Deep Edge adaptation at the forefront. The overall ambition of 6G-BRICKS is to offer evolvability, granularity, while, at the same time, tackling big challenges such as interdisciplinary efforts and big investments in 6G integration.

Year of Publication
2023
Date Published
dec
URL
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10465223
DOI
10.1109/GCWkshps58843.2023.10465223
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