Guest Editorial: Special Issue on Enabling Massive IoT With 6G: Applications, Architectures, Challenges, and Research Directions

Driven by the Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enabled massively data-intensive applications, such as virtual-augmented-reality-based gaming, ultramassive machine-type communications, holographic rendering and high-precision communications, multiway teleconferencing, etc., there is a need for technological advancements and evolutions for wireless communications beyond the fifth-generation (5G) networks. The wireless data traffic is estimated to reach 4394 EB by 2030 (Source: ITU), and 5G will be unable to provide support to most of these advanced applications. Here, 6G is expected to extend the 5G capabilities to very high levels where millions of connected devices and applications could operate seamlessly with high data rates and low latency.