Guest Editorial xURLLC in 6G: Next Generation Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications

AS ONE of the new communication scenarios in 5th-generation (5G) mobile communication systems, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) have stringent requirements on latency (around 1 ms) and reliability (up to 99.99999%). Nevertheless, existing 5G URLLC alone cannot fulfill all the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in emerging mission-critical applications like industrial automation, intelligent transportation, telemedicine, Tactile Internet, and Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR). The 6th generation (6G) communication systems need to meet additional requirements on some of the following KPIs in combination with URLLC: high spectrum efficiency (SE)/throughput/energy efficiency (EE)/network availability/security as well as low Age of Information (AoI)/jitter/round-trip delay. These new requirements pose unprecedented challenges in terms of design methodologies and enabling technologies in 6G. To fill the gap between 5G URLLC and the diverse KPI requirements of the neXt generation URLLC (xURLLC), novel methodologies and innovative technologies are much needed.