Enabling 6G Smart Factories with O-RAN

One of the most prominent use cases for 6G is the mobile networks for Industry 4.0, which are networks with enhanced characteristics to provide optimized and customized services within a smart factory. This scenario demands high capacity data communication, which will require the usage of new portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (mmWave/sub-THz). These high frequencies impose new challenges on communication establishment and control, thus requiring tailored solutions from the radio access network (RAN). The Open RAN (O-RAN) specification promotes the RAN functional disaggregation and centralized intelligent control, thus providing the ideal basis for future smart factories’ control. Nevertheless, the current O-RAN cannot handle some challenges brought by new technologies in high-frequency regimes. This paper presents these new challenges and proposes extensions to the O-RAN architecture and the underlying transport network infrastructure to support the 6G networks for enabling the future Industry 4.0 smart factories.