Progress of an all-photonic network for a 6G mobile network in the IOWN Global Forum [Invited]

Toward sixth generation (6G) mobile systems, various requirements, such as low latency, high reliability, and low power consumption must be met not only over the radio link but also across the optical transport network. The all-photonic network (APN), which introduces photonics-based technology to every aspect of the network, including every user terminal, has been proposed by the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) Global Forum. This paper introduces the activities in the IOWN for Mobile Network Task Force (IMN-TF) of the IOWN Global Forum, which is studying technologies and use cases for 6G mobile networks applying APN. Through technical studies and its proof of concept in the IMN-TF, the prospect that mobile networks applying APN will contribute to meeting 6G requirements was obtained.