A Data-Driven Distributed Autonomous Architecture for the 6G Network

Driven by technological innovation, service diversification, and the evolution and defects of current networks, the 6th-generation (6G) network architecture is lacking in research. One of the challenges in this research is that the architectural design should take into account multiple factors: customers, operators, and vendors. For service-oriented and network-oriented design requirements, this article proposes a data-driven distributed autonomous architecture (DDAA) for 6G with a three-layer four-plane logical hierarchy. The architecture is simplified as four network function units (NFUs), the interaction among which is carried via dual-bus interfaces, i.e., the service-based interface (SBI) and data transmission interface (DTI). In addition, it is user data-centric and rendered as distributed autonomous domains (ADs) with different scales to better adapt to customized services. Different transition stages from the 5th generation (5G) to 6G are discussed. Network simplification evaluation is further provided by going through several signaling procedures of the 3rd-generation partnership project (3GPP), inspiring advanced research and subsequent standardization of the 6G network architecture.