6G for Connected Sky: Holistic Adaptive Combined Airspace and Non Terrestrial Network Architecture

The evolution toward 6G networks introduces unprecedented challenges and opportunities, particularly in the realm of serving both aerial and ground users seamlessly. In this article, we propose a holistic adaptive combined airspace and non-terrestrial network (NTN) architecture designed to address the unique requirements of the 6G era. Three principle features - joint sensing, communication, and computation (JSCC) in three dimensions (3D), cloud-native and artificial intelligence (AI) native, and the flexibility of radio access network (RAN) and core functions of the proposed architecture - are presented. Next, two application scenarios are analyzed: one catering to aerial users and the other supporting ground users, each, in particular, supporting communication links. Finally, we look into the network management and control aspects of the proposed architecture and discuss challenges and future research directions.