Making cellular networks crisis-proof: Towards island-ready, resilient-by-design 6G communication networks

5G and 5G-Advanced cellular networks are vulnerable to local outages resulting from disasters or targeted attacks. This fragility stems from the reliance on the central core network involved for most 5G connectivity use cases. Crisis-struck areas isolated from the cellular core network form islands , where crisis response is hindered by the unavailability of recovery-relevant services, such as emergency calls, cell broadcasts, messengers, and news apps. Our concept of island-ready, resilient-by-design 6G communication networks envisions local cellular connectivity allowing users to connect to local application servers, which is currently impossible. In our conceptualization, we follow an all-society approach, as realizing island connectivity requires the cooperation of multiple actors, including users, operators, developers, providers, and authorities. We evaluate the island readiness of 5G and 5G-Advanced systems and outline the open challenges stakeholders must address for full island readiness, such as decentralizing the 6G core network and designing local-first application architectures.