6G networks aim to facilitate the global sustainability drive. However, sustainability of 6G networks itself will pose major research questions due to the increasing number of devices, systems, and services that can exacerbate the consumption of key resources. In this work, we focus our investigation to 6G security, since sustainability is mostly overlooked when it comes to security. Emerging security technologies which are highly dependent on developing concepts in the realm of security such as AI and blockchain require huge amounts of resources. This article aims to stir further research on sustainability of 6G security through highlighting the main research challenges and future research directions in this domain.

6G communications networks will be highly decentralized and distributed in nature. Existing security policies, procedures, and technologies, however, are mostly based on centralized control. Such centralized security will have serious consequences from two perspectives in 6G. First, the security systems will not be able to meet the strict requirements, such as latency, of emerging services, for example industrial and vehicular communications. Second, centralized security will lead to high consumption of resources, such as spectrum, in securing distributed systems in 6G. Therefore, in this paper we discuss intriguing challenges arising from security centralization that lead to another pressing challenge of the time, i.e., sustainability, as a consequence. Furthermore, we evaluate centralized and decentralized artificial intelligence (AI)-based security to demonstrate the resource and efficiency trade-off. Ultimately, this paper presents important research insights and visions that can pave the way toward distributed security in 6G.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are transforming industries due to their affordability, ease of use, and adaptability. This emphasizes the need for reliable communication links, especially in beyond-line-of-sight scenarios. This paper investigates the feasibility of predicting future quality of service (QoS) in UAV payload communication links, with a special focus on 5G cellular technology. Through field tests conducted in a suburban environment, we explore challenges and trade-offs that cellular-connected UAVs face, particularly in the context of frequency band selection. We employed machine learning models to forecast uplink (UL) throughput for UAV payload communication, highlighting the significance of diverse training data for accurate predictions. The results reveal the effect of frequency band selection on UAV UL throughput rates at varying altitudes and the influence of integrating diverse feature sets, including radio, network, and spatial features, on ML model performance. These insights provide a foundation for addressing the complexities in UAV communications and enhancing UAV operations in modern networks.

A document by Aarne Mämmelä . Click on the document to view its contents.

This article surveys the latest developments in the technological landscape that enables remote health care. First, the most important technologies that are crucial for remote health care such as 5G, medical IoT, big data analytics, machine learning, and distributed ledger technologies, etc., are outlined, and then a thorough survey on those technologies with latest state-of-the-art applications in remote health care is conducted. Furthermore, very important research challenges and future research directions are laid out to initiate further research on those very important technologies that enable remote health care.

This article studies the security gains and challenges in IBN from the aspect of enabling concepts and technologies. Furthermore, the article highlights potential solutions to existing challenges, outlines the standardization efforts, and summarizes the most important research gaps to advance future research in this direction.

The 5G networks revolutionize industrial connectivity, offering reliable, low-latency, and high-bandwidth communication for diverse critical environments, including mining. However, the current uplink capacity of 5G poses limitations for transmitting large data volumes, necessitating the exploration of concurrent wireless solutions. To address this, our paper proposes leveraging a Wi-Fi mesh network in conjunction with 5G and a Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) scheduler. To do so, we deploy a test network in a tunnel able to serve 5G as well as mesh Wi-Fi. We then evaluate how a moving vehicle equipped with a connectivity unit can take advantage of both networks even in challenging conditions by turning off part of the 5G base stations. Ultimately, we demonstrate that employing Wi-Fi and MPTCP can augment 5G in scenarios with limited uplink capacity or unreliable coverage.

With the increasing connectivity of critical infrastructures through wireless technologies, the importance of edge computing is increasing many-folds. Edge computing has become an important phenomenon combining the strengths of distributed computing technologies with those of telecommunication technologies. Therefore, new technological breakthroughs are happening in the realm of edge computing for critical environments, such as the next generation underground and open-pit mining. Since the mining technologies are moving at faster pace towards digitization leveraging on connectivity technologies, edge computing plays a crucial role in bringing computing and connectivity into mines to provide latency- and security-critical services on site. In this article, we study how edge computing fulfills the needs of critical environments, focusing on mining environments, and provide important insight into future research directions.

Terahertz (THz) frequency band and free-space optical (FSO) communication can be proven potential solutions to the spectrum scarcity challenges in the emerging applications in the 6G. In this direction, a mixed THz-FSO relaying system is proposed in this paper. It is assumed that both THz and FSO links encounter fading effects and pointing errors, where the THz link is modeled using α-μ distribution while Málaga (M) distribution is used to characterize the FSO link. Particularly, we conduct the physical layer security (PLS) analysis and derive the secure outage probability into closed-form for two scenarios: 1) THz eavesdropping attack and 2) FSO eavesdropping attack. The effect of THz and FSO links parameters on the secrecy performance are then further investigated in detail. The results show that the security attacks on FSO links are more severe than those on THz links. Interestingly, the improved THz channel conditions adversely affect the security of the proposed mixed THz-FSO system, whereas better FSO channel conditions provide enhanced secrecy.

In this article, the emerging security challenges in communications of technologies of Industry X are identified, discussed, and evaluated to motivate future research in this direction.

The integration of satellite and terrestrial networks have become inevitable in the next generations of communications networks due to emerging needs of ubiquitous connectivity of remote locations. New and existing services and critical infrastructures in remote locations in sea, land and space will be seamlessly connected through a diverse set of terrestrial and non-terrestrial communication technologies. However, the integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial systems will open both systems to unique security challenges that can arise due to the migration of security challenges from one to another. Similarly, security challenges can also arise due to the incompatibility of distinct systems or incoherence of security policies. The resulting security implications, thus, can be highly consequential due to the criticality of the infrastructures such as space stations, autonomous ships, and aeroplanes, for instance. Therefore, in this article we study existing security challenges in satellite-terrestrial communication systems and discuss potential solutions for those challenges. Furthermore, we provide important research directions to stir future research on existing security gaps in this direction.

6G communication networks must be highly dependable due to the huge number applications, services, and public infrastructures that will be dependant on it. However, the integration of vast number of technologies, ranging from physical layer up to the application layer, and diverse services ranging from entertainment to mission critical public services need investigation of the infrastructure from dependability point of view. We take four dependability concepts such as reliability, availability, safety and security, and discuss the dependability of 6G networks. Since intelligence and distribution of control functions and elements make the core of future networks, specific diligence is given federated learning and edge intelligence. This article, in summary, provides interesting insights into existing challenges and advocates future research through highlighting the most important research directions to make 6G dependable.