Processing Modular Application Functions in Future Medical 6G Radio Access Networks

The currently researched 6G communication standard promises to enable new applications with the native integration of new technologies and concepts. Especially the medical area will greatly benefit from the developments of new communication networks. As the communication infrastructure will be able to satisfy stringent and varying requirements, emerging medical applications such as telemedicine and telesurgery will be enabled. However, the concrete networking architecture remains an open question for research. In this paper, we propose a dedicated med-ical 6G Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture and discuss possible usage scenarios based on two medical use cases. First, a network architecture is presented which leverages in-network computing to execute medical applications. The main idea of this concept is the dynamic interaction between medical applications and the network. In particular, the placement of Modular Application Functions (MAFs) and their execution depends on the state of the network. Secondly, we map two medical use cases, namely a semiautonomous telerobotic examination suite and a context-sensitive medical environment, to the proposed network architecture and explain the interaction between our network architecture and these applications in detail. Our approach demonstrates the potential of the combined development of medical applications and their underlying communication architecture.