Toward 6G Internet of Things and the Convergence With RoF System

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a promising communication paradigm that involves sensors, microcontrollers, and transceivers for an efficient communication and computation system. The infrastructure and the applications shall enable and improve the intelligent management of our city service, workspace, and daily life. This article aims at the future 6G vision of IoT, and discusses the convergence with the Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) system. Comparing with the IoT services included in the 5G deployment, 6G IoT exploits high-density heterogeneous devices involving extremely high capacity, supporting much more robust system architecture and artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart algorithms. The RoF is one of the most promising enablers for the outstanding characters of flexibility and efficiency of 6G IoT systems. This article first introduces the IoT envolution roadmap from 5G toward 6G and the potency of optic fiber and RoF technologies. Then, we present the rapidly expanding RoF market and compatible technologies related to IoT-RoF convergence with the discussion on the current outstanding works in multiple dimensions. Finally, we investigate the challenges ahead for the future RoF supported 6G IoT system and the emerging technology solutions.