Enabling High-Capacity 6G Wireless Networks through Intelligent Multiple Access, Edge Intelligence, and Advanced Antenna Systems: A Review

Abstract

The development of 6G wireless networks will meet a multitude of communication requirements ‎including ultra-high data ‎rates, extensive connectivity, low latency and intelligent network ‎management. For these goals, the use of advanced ‎technologies to improve spectrum utilization, ‎computing efficiency and network scalability will be required. The current ‎review covers three ‎technologies that are expected to be prevalent in the future of 6G networks: intelligent multiple ‎access, ‎edge intelligence and advanced antenna systems. In this paper, we cover advancements in ‎intelligent multiple access ‎technologies to enhance spectrum efficiency and user connectivity, and ‎the role played by edge intelligence in developing ‎distributed artificial intelligence, real-time ‎decision making, and latency-aware resource management. Moreover, we ‎review advanced ‎antenna technologies - massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), cell-free architectures and ‎reconfigurable intelligent ‎surfaces - and discuss their potential to enhance coverage, capacity and energy efficiency. In ‎‎addition, we also compare recent work and discuss some of the research gaps in the field and the ‎future research ‎directions in smart and sustainable 6G communication technologies. The findings ‎illustrated that the integration of ‎intelligent multiple access technologies, edge intelligence and ‎advanced antenna technologies would be critical for ‎reliable and scalable wireless networks that ‎would be able to support next generation applications such as extended ‎reality, autonomous ‎systems and large-scale IoT systems.‎