A Perspective Vision of Micro/Nano Systems and Technologies as Enablers of 6G, Super-IoT, and Tactile Internet

Looking at 2030 and beyond, future data- and communication-centric paradigms of 6G (6th generation of mobile communications), Super-IoT (Internet of Things) and Tactile Internet (TI), will require leaps forth at technology and, most notably, at conceptual level. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a cornerstone both on service and network operation plane, leveraging self-sustenance and self-evolution of the infrastructure. This work argues that currently in use design methods for Hardware-Software (HW-SW) systems are unable to fully realize the concept of Future Networks (FN). In detail, the HW is at stake here, proposing the reinforcement of HW vs. SW separation and symmetry, thus stepping over the so-called HW-SW divide. To this end, reconceptualization of HW is reported, leveraging the parallelism of HW/SW with classical elements in nature. The resulting frame of reference is named WEAF Mnecosystem (Water, Earth, Air and Fire Micro/Nanotechnologies Ecosystem). It embodies solutions based on Micro/Nano technologies, regarded as pivotal in the transition to 6G/TI/FN. Thereafter, the WEAF Mnecosystem empty landscape is populated by reporting state of the art research activities based on Micro/Nanotechnologies, identified as key enablers of the future paradigms at stake.