Summary
The paper addresses the problem that current communication methods on land, underwater, in the air, and in space are developed separately, making it hard to connect them seamlessly. The authors propose CHAIN, a new framework that treats all these environments as part of one big network using light-based connections and AI to manage it all. This approach aims to solve issues like different signal delays and equipment compatibility to create a truly global, mixed-media network. They map out technical challenges and suggest steps to test and build CHAIN from small experiments to worldwide use.
What this means in practice
- •For network architects: Design frameworks that integrate land, underwater, air, and space communication channels into a unified network controlled by AI.
- •For telecommunications operators: Plan deployments that extend connectivity beyond terrestrial limits by combining multiple physical media using photonic networks and AI-driven control.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Paul Anthony Haigh, Sujan Rajbhandari, Kyle Bottrill, Abderrahmen Trichili, Scott Watson, Hanaa Abumarshoud, David Benton, Sinan Sinanovic, Johannes Herrnsdorf, Peter Christopher, Mohsen Khalily, Rahim Tafazolli, Harad Haas, Martin Lavery, Wasiu Popoola
Abstract
Next-generation connectivity depends on data traversing multiple physical media within a single end-to-end path, yet research in optical fibre, free-space optical and radio wireless, non-terrestrial networks, and underwater communications has advanced largely in isolation. This fragmentation has a wider adverse impact on communication performance, deployment and adaption as the most demanding open problems in next-generation connectivity, cross-medium channel characterisation, transport-layer protocol design across heterogeneous latency regimes, and cross-domain orchestration, sit at the boundaries between domains and can only be addressed by bringing these challenges together in cross-domain systems. Space-air-ground integrated network research has begun to treat three domains analytically, and its recent extension to the sea surface represents the most ambitious multi-domain framework proposed to date, yet neither has produced experimental results, a deployed system, or a standards engagement. The subsurface and maritime domain remains absent from both. This paper proposes the connected heterogeneous all-medium integrated network (CHAIN), a framework that treats the undersea, maritime, terrestrial, aerial and space domains as a single design space. We identify an all-photonic network backbone as the unifying physical infrastructure, Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven orchestration as the cross-domain control layer, and the joints between domains as a unification challenge. We survey the state of the art across all domains and the existing cross-domain literature, develop the CHAIN framework and its technical pillars, characterise the five core open problems the field must resolve, and set out a research roadmap from near-term measurement campaigns and testbed validation through cross-medium field trials to global-scale deployment.