Dynamic Spectrum Management for 6G Network-in-Network Concepts

TL;DR

The paper tackles dynamic spectrum sharing for 6G NiN by integrating a DSM framework with KIRA for resilient control-plane connectivity. It demonstrates a centralized DSM in a CPPS scenario with two NiN sub-networks sharing a band in the $3.7$–$3.8$ GHz range (total $100$ MHz), showing how spectrum is allocated and reconfigured as sub-networks appear or disappear. The main contributions are the demonstration architecture, the DSM-enabled spectrum allocation flow, and the observed robustness to network dynamics, with a vision toward decentralized DSM in future work. This work enables application-specific QoS and flexible spectrum management in 6G NiN contexts, supporting Industry 4.0 use cases and nomadic/private networks.

Abstract

Flexible, self-organizing communication networks will be a key feature in the next mobile communication standard. Network-in-Network (NiN) is one important concept in 6G research, introducing sub-networks tailored to specific application requirements. These sub-networks may be dynamic, i.e., they may appear, disappear, or even move throughout the network. Moreover, sub-networks may operate within a shared frequency spectrum, thereby requiring coordination among them. We demonstrate the concept of Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) for future 6G networks that dynamically (re-)allocates spectrum according to active sub-networks in the shared spectrum domain. Resilient control plane connectivity between sub-networks and the DSM is provided by the self-organizing routing protocol KIRA, enabling the aforementioned coordination. This demonstration presents an integrated solution of the DSM concept, providing increased flexibility to support diverse industrial applications and their individual performance requirements simultaneously within the context of a cyber-physical production system (CPPS). For the sub-networks, we use specifically designed hardware for wireless real-time communication and couple them with a network emulation. By switching sub-networks on and off, one can see that the DSM dynamically manages the spectrum allocations for them and that KIRA provides the required connectivity.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: nin concept exemplified by a cnc-machine with sensors
• Figure 2: Demo Architecture (SM = spectrum manager)
• Figure 3: Demo Setup