Non-Coherent and Backscatter Communications: Enabling Ultra-Massive Connectivity in 6G Wireless Networks

With the commencement of the 5
^th
generation (5G) of wireless networks, researchers around the globe have started paying their attention to the imminent challenges that may emerge in the beyond 5G (B5G) era. Various revolutionary technologies and innovative services are offered in 5G networks, which, along with many principal advantages, are anticipated to bring a boom in the number of connected wireless devices and the types of use-cases that may cause the scarcity of network resources. These challenges partly emerged with the advent of massive machine-type communications (mMTC) services, require extensive research innovations to sustain the evolution towards enhanced-mMTC (e-mMTC) with the scalable network cost in 6
^th
generation (6G) wireless networks. Towards delivering the anticipated massive connectivity requirements with optimal energy and spectral efficiency besides low hardware cost, this paper presents an enabling framework for 6G networks, which utilizes two emerging technologies, namely, non-coherent communications and backscatter communications (BsC). Recognizing the coherence between these technologies for their joint potential of delivering e-mMTC services in the B5G era, a comprehensive review of their state-of-the-art is conducted. The joint scope of non-coherent and BsC with other emerging 6G technologies is also identified, where the reviewed technologies include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-assisted communications, visible light communications (VLC), quantum-assisted communications, reconfigurable large intelligent surfaces (RLIS), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and machine learning (ML)-aided intelligent networks. Subsequently, the scope of these enabling technologies for different device types (e.g., UAVs, body implants, etc), service types (e.g., e-mMTC), and optimization parameters (e.g., spectrum, energy, cost) is analyzed. Finally, in the context of the proposed non-coherent and BsCs based framework for e-mMTCs, some promising future research directions and open research challenges are highlighted.