The introduction of 5G networks has seen the manifestation of a desire to accommodate use cases of a more critical nature that span broad societal objectives, including ones that seek to automate manufacturing, process control, utilities, transportation, logistics, etc. It has become apparent that many of these scenarios demand levels of performance, security, and resilience that will significantly alter the landscape of attack surfaces presented by faults, disturbances, threats, and anomalies within the connectivity and computational services provided by the network.

Additionally, it has become clear that there is an imminent need to eliminate all single points of failure. There is also a clear need to architect a network based on zero-trust principles in a manner that affords users high levels of reliability, availability, functional safety, and privacy. The development of 6G technologies will accommodate these needs more effectively, even as standalone 5G systems continue to be improved to meet immediate concerns associated with earlier design choices.