Resumen:
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[EN] Cellular communication standards have been established to ensure connectivity across most urban environments, complemented by deployment hardware and facilities tailored for city life. At the same time, numerous ...[+]
[EN] Cellular communication standards have been established to ensure connectivity across most urban environments, complemented by deployment hardware and facilities tailored for city life. At the same time, numerous initiatives seek to broaden connectivity to rural and developing areas. However, with nearly half the global population still offline, there is an urgent need to drive research toward enhancing connectivity in areas and conditions that deviate from the norm. This article delves into innovative communication solutions not only for hard-to-reach and extreme environments but also introduces "hard-to-serve" areas as a crucial, yet underexplored, category within the broader spectrum of connectivity challenges.We explore the latest advancements in communication systems designed for environments subject to extreme temperatures, harsh weather, excessive dust, or even disasters such as fires. Our exploration spans the entire communication stack, covering communications on isolated islands, sparsely populated regions, mountainous terrains, and even underwater and underground settings. We highlight system architectures, hardware, materials, algorithms, and other pivotal technologies that promise to connect these challenging areas. Through case studies, we explore the application of 5G for innovative research, long range (LoRa) for audio messages and emails, LoRa wireless connections, free-space optics, communications in underwater and underground scenarios, delay-tolerant networks, satellite links, and the strategic use of shared spectrum and TV white space (TVWS) to improve mobile connectivity in secluded and remote regions. These studies also touch on prevalent challenges such as power outages, regulatory gaps, technological availability, and human resource constraints, where we introduce the concept of peri-urban hard-to-serve areas where populations might struggle with affordability or lack the skills for traditional connectivity solutions. This article provides an exhaustive summary of our research, showcasing how 6G and future networks will play a crucial role in delivering connectivity to areas that are hard-to-reach, hard-to-serve, or subject to extreme conditions (ECs).
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Agradecimientos:
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This work was supported in part by Scotland 5G
Centre; in part by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
through the 5G Rural First (5GRF) Project; in part by the Engineering and
Physical Sciences ...[+]
This work was supported in part by Scotland 5G
Centre; in part by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
through the 5G Rural First (5GRF) Project; in part by the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) U.K. for Future Telecom Hub under
Grant CHEDDAR EP/X040518/1 and Grant CHEDDAR Uplift EP/Y037421/1; in part
by xGMobile EMBRAPII-Inatel Competence Center on 5G and 6G Networks
through the XGM-AFCCT-2024-2-15-1 Project; in part by the Ministério de
Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (MCTI) through from Programas Prioritários
Internet of Things (PPI IoT)/Manufatura 4.0 under Grant 052/2023; in part by the
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) under Grant
22/09319-9; in part by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e
Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil; and in part by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa
do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) under Grant PPE-00124-23. The work of
Hongwei Zhang was supported in part by NSF under Award 2336057, Award
2212573, Award 2229654, Award 2232461, Award 2112606, and Award
2130889; and in part by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
under Award 2021-67021-33775. The work of Jaap van de Beek was supported
by Sweden s Innovation Agency Vinnova under Grant 2020-04136 . The work of
Mitchell Arij Cox was supported by the South African National Research
Foundation.
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