Programmable Reconfigurable Packet-Optical 6G Front-/Mid-Haul Infrastructure

The 6G networks need to rely on a dynamic, flexible, scalable, high-bandwidth, and low-latency packet-optical front-/mid-haul infrastructure that can dynamically manage the Radio Access Network (RAN) functional split options. Its main aim is to offer the desired services with the best possible performance at the lowest power consumption and cost. To implement the flexible functional splitting (FFS), that maximizes the efficiency of the RAN by dynamically selecting the optimal split between Central Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs) for each cell and each user, the underlying 6G front-/mid-haul network segments should posses the ability of reconfigurability under dynamically customizable operational conditions. Such an optical front-/mid-haul infrastructure needs to be based on novel optical processing/switching schemes that are ultra-low energy (at the order of pJ per bit), ultra-high capacity (>1 Tb/s), and fast-reconfigurable (sub-ms) software-programmable photonic subsystems (i.e., transceivers, multiplexers, and fast switches integrating tunable lasers/filters). At the same time, the existence of a novel intelligent control plane to optimize the utilization of network resources is mandated. In this invited contribution, we discuss the proposed innovations and their associated control as well as data plane solutions currently under development within the EC-funded project PROTEUS-6G, with a particular focus on novel transceiver and switching innovations.