Towards the Sixth Generation (6G) Wireless Systems: Thoughts on Physical Layer Security

Wireless communication has already had a transformative impact on lifestyles, as well as the way of interacting and communicating, throughout many years. This transformation is accelerated by technological drivers such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth and throughput. However, it is already foreseeable that the Fifth Generation (5G) cellular networks will not be sufficient to cope with the volume of mobile communication in 2030 and beyond. This paper considers Beyond 5G (B5G) and Sixth Generation (6G) mobile communications and outlines challenges for them. Alongside the technical requirements, the security, confidentiality and trustworthiness are of major importance. Therefore, the paper discusses the various 6G research areas such as Visible Light Communication (VLC), Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) and (sub)Terahertz (THz) communication and highlights how the research areas contribute to Physical Layer Security (PhySec) and how the development of 6G will act as catalyst for PhySec.