6G is currently under definition, being often addressed from a plain telecommunications perspective as an evolutionary paradigm that represents an extension of 5G. Having as a horizon 2030, 6G initiatives are being deployed across the globe to further ignite the development of 6G services. At its philosophy core, 6G embodies the "human in the loop" principle. The research effort being developed towards 6G requires an interdisciplinary approach that ignites discussion across different key technological sectors, ranging from communications up to services and business cases.
The contributions of this book to research in the field concern an evolutionary and interdisciplinary design of 6G as a paradigm that can be addressed by working together four different computational areas: communications; satellites and navigation; sensing; services.
The book is derived from initial brainstorming that was developed during the 11th CONASENSE Symposium held in October 2021 in fortiss, Munich, Germany. Several international experts contribute to an overview on 6G key challenges, new networking trends and challenges to be overcome, and advanced 6G services.
The book starts with a perspective on 6G challenges and use-cases beyond the 2030 horizon, to then continue to address the role of non-terrestrial networks and cognitive, service-centric satellite networks in future 6G services. Still with focus on 6G adaptive networking, the book continues with a debate on the need to integrate social awareness based on an interdisciplinary approach in network operations. Then, specific examples of advanced services (quantum imaging and holography; localization of the Internet of remote things) are discussed.
The book is, therefore, envisioned to assist in developing critical thinking to back up novel networking, applications, and services towards 6G.
About the Author: Ramjee Prasad, Fellow IEEE, IET, IETE, and WWRF, is a Professor of Future Technologies for Business Ecosystem Innovation (FT4BI) in the Department of Business Development and Technology Aarhus University, Herning, Denmark. He is the Founder President of the CTIF Global Capsule (CGC), and is also the Founder Chairman of the Global ICT Standardization Forum for India, established in 2009. He was honored by the University of Rome ""Tor Vergata"", Italy as a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Clinical Sciences and Translational Medicine on 15 March, 2016. He is an Honorary Professor of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He received the Ridderkorset of Dannebrogordenen (Knight of the Dannebrog) in 2010 from the Danish Queen for the internationalization of top-class telecommunication research and education. He has received several international awards such as IEEE Communications Society Wireless Communications Technical Committee Recognition Award in 2003 for making a contribution in the field of personal, wireless and mobile systems and networks, Telenor's Research Award in 2005 for impressive merits within the field of wireless and personal communication, and so on. He has been the Project Coordinator of several EC projects, namely, MAGNET, MAGNET Beyond, and eWALL. He has published more than 50 books, 1000 plus journal and conference publications, more than 15 patents, supervised over 140 Ph.D. graduates and over 250 Masters. Several of his students are today worldwide telecommunication leaders themselves.
Rute C. Sofia (Ph.D. 2004) is the Industrial IoT Head at fortiss, the research institute of the Free State of Bavaria for software intensive services and systems. She is also an Invited Associate Professor of University Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, and an Associate Researcher at ISTAR, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Rute's research background has been developed in industrial and academic contexts. She was a co-founder of the COPELABS research unit, and the COPELABS scientific director (2013-2017), where she was a Senior Researcher (2010-2019). She co-founded the Portuguese startup Senception Lda (2013-2019), focused on personal communication platforms. Her current research interests are: network architectures and protocols, IoT, Edge computing, in-network computing, and wireless and cellular networks. Rute has written 70 peer-reviewed publications in her fields of expertise, and holds 9 patents. She is an ACM Europe Councilor (2021-2025), an ACM Senior member, and an IEEE Senior Member. She was an IEEE ComSoc N2Women Awards co-chair (2020-2021) and is the IEEE ComSoc WICE Industry Liaison Deputy. Rute holds a B.Eng. in Informatics Engineering from Universidade de Coimbra (1995), and an M.Sc. (1999) and Ph.D. (2004) in Informatics from Universidade de Lisboa. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting scholar (2000-2003) at Northwestern University (ICAIR) and at University of Pennsylvania.
