In-Network Computing: a new approach for 6G networks

one6G Working Group 2 and several members from academia and industry announce a new paper on the potential of In-network Computing (INC) in the 6G networks.

The publication titled “An Intelligent User Plane to Support In-Network Computing in 6G Networks” has been accepted for the Next Generation Networking and Internet Symposium (NGNI) of the IEEE ICC’23 conference, to be held in Rome in May 2023.

In this paper, the authors highlight that INC has gained a considerable amount of attention in recent years, among others due to its potential of reducing latency and traffic volume, and thus supporting the requirements of novel applications such as Augmented Reality.

Motivated by this, the paper envisions an Intelligent User Plane (IUP) for 6G networks, making use of the INC concept. After elaborating on the involved challenges and prospects of the IUP, different enablers are proposed for embedding INC into the mobile networking domain. The discussion on possible architectural impacts shows that embedding INC into the 6G system entails major changes as compared to the current 5G design, which can only be implemented at a generation shift towards 6G.

The publication is a result of joint activities from one6G Working Group 2, including several one6G members from academia and industry: Docomo Euro-labs, NTNU Norway, University of Aveiro, Kings College London, and Huawei.

The accepted version is accessible here.