Next-Generation Consumer Electronics for 6G Wireless Era

The upcoming beyond 5G (B5G)/6G wireless networks target various innovative technologies, services, and interfaces such as edge computing, ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC), backscatter communications, and TeraHertz (THz) technology-enabled inter-chip high-capacity communications, to name a few. Although there are ongoing advances in the system/network level, it is crucial to advance the device-level design to efficiently support these novel technologies by addressing various practical constraints in terms of power, computational capacity, and storage capacity limitations. This need for device-level innovation ultimately demands significant enhancements in today’s consumer electronics (CE) framework, i.e., CE advancement towards “Consumer Electronics 2.0”. Considering the contemporary latency requirements of future CE applications (e.g., entertainment, gaming, etc), to enhance the commercial potential of “edge processing as a service”, it is envisioned that URLLC will further evolve as enhanced-URLLC (e-URLLC) in the B5G era. In this regard, this paper proposes a novel edge computing-enabled e-URLLC framework, named edge computing for CE (ECCE), to support advancements and to initiate discussions on the need for the next-generation CE. Starting with the discussion on recent trends and advances in CE, the proposed framework and its importance in the 6G wireless era are described. Subsequently, several potential technologies and tools to enable the implementation of the proposed ECCE framework are identified along with some interesting open research topics and future recommendations.