DEN-Based Converged Architecture for RAN and Distributed CN toward 6G

The diverse performance requirements and distributed deployment needs brought about by new types of services have blurred the boundary between the radio access network (RAN) and core network (CN), necessitating research on 6G network architecture. At the deep edge node (DEN) side, this paper investigates a RAN-CN converged architecture to address the demand for RAN and CN collaboration, as well as the problem of functional redundancy between RAN and sunken CN. Additionally, this paper analyzes and studies the procedures of UE initial access and registration, session management, UE context management, based on the converged architecture. The suggested architecture can eliminate functional redundancy between RAN and CN, simplify the existing signaling and data transmission procedures, and shorten latency and processing complexity.