Digital Twin-Empowered Integrated Satellite-Terrestrial Networks Toward 6G Internet of Things

Integrated satellite-terrestrial networks (ISTNs) technology in the sixth generation (6G) wireless networks has been considered a promising candidate for global coverage and seamless connectivity for the Internet of things (IoT). However, integrating these two complex systems poses many deployment, management, and maintenance issues. With the fundamental principle of building a virtual live representation of the networks, the digital twin (DT) technology can be used in complex ISTNs to provide a reliable environment for designing or testing, reducing risk and latency, recovering the networks quickly, and optimizing resource allocation for IoT devices in real-time. In this article, we propose an ISTN framework empowered by DT technology, and discuss its promising models, benefits, potential technologies, research challenges, and future research direction for 6G IoT.