A Vision on 6G-Enabled NIB: Requirements, Technologies, Deployments, and Prospects

Abstract

Network-in-a-box (NIB) aims to provide personalized private network services in mission-crit-ical situations. Innovation in business models in industry 4.0 would require NIB to get positioned anywhere and provision seamless Internet connectivity. However, legacy technologies restrict the vision of NIB to become feasible due to the lack of efficient mobility management, portability, all-dimension network coverage and privacy aware service mitigation. In this study, we elaborate on the significance of NIB upon integration with 6G, that is, 6G-NIB for serving actual use cases in the future. We present a visionary augmentation about 6G-NIB on top of vital aspects, such as key requirements, technological aspects, use cases, deployment schemes, variants, and open research issues and future directions. We learn that 6G-NIB would become feasible, reliable and resilient upon true comprehension of earlier aspects. We recommend that applications related to industry 4.0 might benefit from 6G-NIB when proper connectivity features are sought.