Abstract
Sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks – formally designated IMT-2030 by the ITU – will require a fundamental rearchitecting of how wireless systems are conceived, standardised, and operated. Motivated by application classes that 5G cannot serve, this paper proposes a four-layer 6G network architecture comprising an Intelligent RAN (I-RAN), an AI-Native Core (ANC), a Semantic Communication Plane (SCP), and a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) Stratum, unified by a cross-cutting AI/ML orchestration plane and a zero-trust security framework. The paper draws on the Hexa-X use case taxonomy (HEX-D13) [1], the eight architecture principles of HEX-D51 [2], and the 5G PPP functional reference model [3].
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