Integration of Network and Artificial Intelligence toward the Beyond 5G/6G Networks

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications have been considered in various fields. Mobile networks are becoming an indispensable part of our society, and are considered as one of the promising applications of AI. In the Beyond 5G/6G era, AI will continue to penetrate networks and AI will become an integral part of mobile networks. This paper provides an overview of the collaborations between networks and AI from two categories, "AI for Network" and "Network for AI," and predicts mobile networks in the B5G/6G era. It is expected that the future mobile network will be an integrated infrastructure, which will not only be a mere application of AI, but also provide as the process infrastructure for AI applications. This integration requires a driving application, and the network operation is one of the leading candidates. Furthermore, the paper describes the latest research and standardization trends in the autonomous networks, which aims to fully automate network operation, as a future network operation concept with AI, and discusses research issues in the future mobile networks.