Flexible and High-Performance Radio Access Networks for upcoming Sixth-Generation (6G) Systems

Abstract: The collaborative research project 6G-ANNA develops concepts for the 6G radio access network (RAN) architecture and technology components. Previous RAN generations have become inherently more complex and reach their limits in handling foreseen future traffic demands with their diverse characteristics in an efficient manner, e.g., for the use-case of mobile eXtended Reality (XR) on a massive scale. One main objective of 6G is to regain both operational and energy efficiency, i.e., by simplification and automation. To achieve this, in this paper a flexible 6G RAN functional architecture and protocol stack as well as implementation and deployment options are described. We outline how performance is optimized by distributed Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and distributed Carrier Aggregation (CA), and furthermore, how adaptiveness and scalability is enabled by Cloud RAN and service orchestration. Finally, the proposed zero-trust framework mitigates security risks in the described 6G RAN architecture.