Sustainable Air-Ground Integrated Coverage Networks: ISCC Architecture, Technologies, and Testbed
Information TheoryNetworking and Internet Architecture
Summary
The authors discuss new 6G wireless networks that combine ground and aerial systems to provide better coverage, called air-ground integrated coverage networks (AGICNs). They point out that previous work mostly focused on coverage, ignoring how to make these networks energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. To address this, the authors propose a framework that uses sensing, communication, and computing together to better manage resources and reduce carbon emissions. Their experiments show that this approach can cut power use by 20% while still covering over 90% of the area. This work helps guide future networks to be both effective and sustainable.
Authors
J. Liu, X. Zhang, M. Sheng, R. Zhang, N. Zhao, J. Wang, J. Li
Abstract
The rapid emergence of sixth-generation (6G) networks and the low-altitude economy has accelerated the evolution of wireless infrastructures toward air-ground integrated coverage networks (AGICNs), which seamlessly fuse terrestrial and aerial communication resources. However, existing AGICN studies primarily focus on coverage enhancement, while ignoring sustainability. Pursuing sustainable AGICNs introduces new challenges due to the multidimensional resource coupling across heterogeneous air-ground segments. In view of this, this paper presents a comprehensive survey and tutorial on sustainable AGICNs, aiming to balance coverage capacity with carbon efficiency in low-altitude economies. An integrated sensing, communication, and computation (ISCC)-driven architecture, which enables dynamic resource orchestration through closed-loop control, is proposed. We thus introduce a multi-dimensional sustainability metric system, which covers operational efficiency, task-oriented performance, and full lifecycle carbon emissions, to quantify energy and carbon footprints. We review enabling technologies, including artificial intelligence, hybrid precoding, integrated sensing and communication, and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer, and discuss their integration into the ISCC framework to minimize energy consumption while maintaining robust coverage. Experimental results on a real-world testbed demonstrate a 20% reduction in power consumption while achieving over 90% coverage probability, highlighting the feasibility of sustainable AGICNs for future green networks.