Various visions of the forthcoming sixth generation (6G) networks point toward flexible connect-and-compute technologies to support future innovative services and the corresponding use cases. 6G should be able to accommodate ever evolving and heterogeneous applications, future regulations, and diverse user-, service-, and location-based requirements. A key element toward building smart and energy sustainable wireless systems beyond 5G is the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), which offers programmable control and shaping of the wireless propagation environment. Capitalizing on this technology potential, in this article we introduce two new concepts: i) wireless environment as a service, which leverages a novel RIS-empowered networking paradigm to trade off diverse, and usually conflicting, connectivity objectives; and ii) performance-boosted areas enabled by RIS-based connectivity, representing competing service provisioning areas that are highly spatially and temporally focused. We discuss the key technological enablers and research challenges with the proposed networking paradigm, and highlight the potential profound role of RISs in the recent Open Radio Access Network architecture.

中文翻译：

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用于 6G 智能连接的可重构、智能和可持续的无线环境

即将推出的第六代 (6G) 网络的各种愿景都指向灵活的连接和计算技术，以支持未来的创新服务和相应的用例。6G 应该能够适应不断发展的异构应用程序、未来的法规以及基于用户、服务和位置的多样化需求。构建超越 5G 的智能和能源可持续无线系统的一个关键要素是可重构智能表面 (RIS)，它提供无线传播环境的可编程控制和塑造。利用这种技术潜力，我们在本文中介绍了两个新概念：i) 无线环境即服务，它利用新的 RIS 支持的网络范式来权衡不同且通常相互冲突的连接目标；ii) 由基于 RIS 的连接实现的性能提升区域，代表高度空间和时间集中的竞争服务供应区域。我们讨论了所提出的网络范式的关键技术推动因素和研究挑战，并强调了 RIS 在最近的开放无线电接入网络架构中的潜在深远作用。