Optical Networking in Support of 5G and 6G Infrastructures

Optical Networking has already played a significant role in the realization of the 5G vision providing increased transport network capacity and low latency for the interconnection of disaggregated radio access and core network elements. However, the evolution towards 6G introducing technologies such as Cell Free-MIMO, Integrated Communication and Sensing and extensive adoption of AI enabled automation brings the need for new features such as further increase in transport network capacity, enhanced granularity in resource allocation as well as configuration flexibility and automation. In this context, optical networking able to effectively support all these requirements can play a key role. This tutorial will provide an overview of 5G and 6G architectural structures and will concentrate on how Optical Networking can support current and upcoming transport network requirements in these environments taking a multilayer approach.