6G Glossary: 500 Standards-Aligned Terms

Every 6G concept covered by the 5G6GTech curriculum, organized by technical domain. Click any term for a full definition, key functions, relevant 3GPP/ITU-R specifications, and related concepts.

RAN134 terms

6G-gNB ISAC RIS STAR-RIS BD-RIS Active-RIS XL-MIMO Near-Field Beamforming Beam Focusing Cell-Free Massive MIMO Radio Stripes Ambient IoT Backscatter Comms SAGIN NTN-LEO HAPS Tethered Drone Cells Maritime Buoy Nodes Semantic Communications JSCC Holographic Beamforming IBFD SIC FAS O-RAN 2.0 Near-RT RIC O-RAN 2.0 Non-RT RIC dApp (O-RAN)xApp rApp E2-6G Interface Y1 Interface D-MIMO Lens Antenna Array OAM Multiplexing Sub-THz Beam Tracking REM (Radio Environmental Map)Coherent CoMP-6G Non-Coherent CoMP Super-Cell DFRS Monostatic ISAC Bistatic ISAC Multistatic ISAC Clutter Suppression Micro-Doppler Sensing Target Parameter Estimation Energy-Harvesting RAN WUR (Wake-Up Radio)HST-DC Super-Regenerative RX Multi-Band CA Dual-Polarized XL-Array CAP-MIMO Sparse Array Optimization Massive Access Protocol URA IRSA NOMA-6G RSMA SDMA 2.0 Beam Squint Compensator True Time Delay (TTD)AirComp Edge-Colocated gNB Paging-Free Reachability Cloud-RAN 2.0 eCPRI 2.0 Fronthaul OTN-6G Integrated Photonic Beamformer DeepJSCC-XR Context-Aware PHY Neural Receiver PINN Channel Estimator Learned Constellation Sidelink 6G Mesh Sidelink Blind Beam Acquisition Dynamic TRP Clustering 6G-Uu Smart-Skin Radome On-Device Neural Receiver Ultra-Low Power Wake-Up Radio (WUR)Handset Near-Field Beamfocusing Direct-to-Cell Satellite UE Handset Metasurface Lens Antenna Dual-SIM NTN-TN Coordinator Terminal-Side Beam-Alignment Protocol Handset Reconfigurable DFE Terminal-Centric Cell-Free Association Handset In-Band Full-Duplex Canceller UE Polarization-Division Multiplexing UE Autonomous Sidelink Scheduler Handset STAR-RIS Interaction Protocol CSI Compression Autoencoder on UE Acoustic-Radio Hybrid Handset Locator On-Device Neural Beam Predictor Handset Deep Sleep Micro-Timer Sub-THz Handset Lens Feed Switcher Handset Phase Noise Mitigation Algorithm User Experienced Data Rate Target Air Interface Latency Target (<0.1 ms)6G Extreme Mobility Target (1,000 km/h)AI-RAN Alliance Unified 6G Air Interface Net-Zero Cellular Infrastructure Area Traffic Capacity Target (1 Gbps/m²)Radio Resource Fabric Open RAN 2.0 (Next-Gen O-RAN)Simultaneously Transmitting and Reflecting RIS (STAR-RIS)Beyond Diagonal RIS (BD-RIS)Active RIS (Amplifying Metasurface)Extremely Large Aperture Array (ELAA)Radiative Near-Field (Fresnel Zone)Spherical Wavefront Pre-Coding Holographic MIMO (H-MIMO)Continuous-Aperture MIMO (CAP-MIMO)OTFS (Orthogonal Time Frequency Space)AFDM (Affine Frequency Division Multiplexing)Learned Autoencoder Physical Layer Channel Knowledge Map (CKM)Dual-Functional Radar-Communication (DFRC)Urban Radar Clutter Suppression Target Velocity Ambiguity Resolver Distributed Radio Holography Generative Diffusion Channel Estimator Neuromorphic Event-Driven MAC Fluid Antenna System (FAS)True-Time-Delay (TTD) Beamformer Tactile Packet Priority Pre-Emptor Metamaterial Lens Collimators Radio Stripes (Cell-Free MIMO)Near-Field Beam-Squint Precompensator Cascaded Multi-Tier RIS Massive SIMO with 1-Bit ADCs

Core Network112 terms

AI-Native Core ZSM DTN IBN INC Micro-UPF Extreme-UPF SBA+Wasm Sandbox DetNet Extreme Slicing Semantic Broker NWDAF 2.0 CFN Dynamic Mesh Core Green Orchestrator P4 Data Plane Federated AMF Distributed SMF Quantum-Safe UDM Quantum-Safe AUSF Continuous PCF NRF 2.0 NEF 2.0 UDR-6G UDSF-6G CHF 2.0 BSF-6G SCP 2.0 SEPP 2.0 NSACF 2.0 EEC ECS EHE UP-DB PRE SRv6-6G BIER-6G In-situ OAM (IOAM)eBPF/XDP Engine DPDK Pipeline Serverless Core NF Multi-Tenancy Hypervisor Zero-Loss Handover Blockchain Roaming SLA Guarantee Engine Autonomous Anomaly Mitigator Micro-Service Mesh Pub/Sub Event Hub Context Session Anchor Dynamic NF Migrator DPI 2.0 CAPIF 2.0 Micro-Billing Contracts UP Telemetry Collector Closed-Loop Optimizer Slice Isolation Auditor Satellite Core Gateway TN-NTN Convergence Node Disaster Relay Core Intent Validation Engine MATS Steerer Congestion Prediction Agent In-Flight Transcoder Micro-DNS Resolver Ephemeral Data Anchor Sovereign Edge Gate Core Energy Balancer Semantic Context Repository Cognitive Core Orchestrator PSA 2.0 Unified Control Plane Bus Multi-Cloud Resilience Controller Core Identity Concealer Policy Execution Guard Neuromorphic Baseband SoC On-Device Split Inference Client Terminal Semantic Encoder Terminal Multi-Path BBR Controller On-Device Federated Learning Client Integrated AI and Communication Deterministic Jitter Bound (<1 µs)Green 6G Sustainability Framework 3GPP Release 19 (6G Kickoff)3GPP Release 20 (6G Phase 1)3GPP Release 21 (6G Phase 2)ETSI ZSM Autonomous Levels (Level 0-5)Beyond-Shannon Semantic Bounds Kolmogorov Complexity in Communication Carbon Footprint Index per Bit 6G Native Multi-Tenancy Intent-Based Telecom Lifecycle Deterministic Latency Budgeting GitOps in 6G Telecom 6G Automated SLA Assurance Compute-as-a-Service (CaaS) in 6G AI-Native 6G Core (6GC)Self-Synthesizing Network Functions (SS-NF)In-Network Compute Broker (INCB)Semantic Routing Gateway Micro-UPF Edge Shard TSN-6G Profile (IEEE 802.1Q)In-Band Network Telemetry (INT)GNN Dynamic Routing Engine Self-Healing Autonomous Anomaly Resolver Edge Memory-Centric Compute Fabric Serverless Microservice Pipeline for 6GC SAGIN Core Gateway Distributed User Plane (D-UPF)Zero-Touch Slice Optimizer Green Telco Carbon Credit Blockchain Autonomous Network Causal AI Healer

Spectrum79 terms

Sub-THz THz Band FR3 Upper Mid-Band W-Band D-Band G-Band OWC VLC (Li-Fi)FSO UV-C Comms OTFS AFDM Extreme SCS Single-Carrier FDE DFT-s-OFDM 6G OAM Molecular Absorption Rain Attenuation Mitigator Phase Noise Canceler RF Energy Harvesting Ambient Backscatter Modulator DSS 2.0 WRC Spectrum Harmonization Super-Contiguous Channel Spatial Modulation Optical Frequency Comb Plasmonic Transceiver Metasurface Phase Modulator Neural DPD Low-Resolution ADC THz Spectroscopy Channel Sounding 6G Ray-Tracing Modeling Diffuse Scattering Penetration Loss Database Atmospheric Windows Polar Codes 2.0 LDPC-6G Spinal Codes Turbo Autoencoder Geometric Constellation Shaping Probabilistic Amplitude Shaping Asymmetric Carrier Aggregation Full-Duplex Transceiver Architecture Chirped Delay Filter Near-Field Channel Matrix DNN Equalizer Cognitive Radio 6G Reconfigurable Metasurface Lens Graphene Plasmonic Antenna Sub-THz Handset RFIC Sub-THz Handset Thermal Management Sub-Sampling Ultra-Low Power ADC Antenna-in-Display (AiD)UE Optical-Radio Hybrid Transceiver Handset Low-Phase-Noise PLL Handset Dynamic SAR Beam Controller Ceramic Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA)6G Peak Data Rate Target WRC-27 6G Spectrum Agenda Items Peak Spectral Efficiency Metric (60 bps/Hz)Cognitive Radio 6G Evolution Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) Multiplexing Faster-Than-Nyquist (FTN) Signaling Direct RF-Photonic Downconverter Asymmetric Sub-Carrier Numerology for Sub-THz Upper Mid-Band FR3 (7-24 GHz)D-Band (130-175 GHz)G-Band (175-300 GHz)Terahertz Molecular Absorption Peaks Free Space Optics (FSO)Dynamic Spectrum Sharing 2.0 (DSS 2.0)GaN-on-SiC Sub-THz Transmitters High-Speed Rail Terabit Wireless Kiosks Terahertz Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC)10 GHz Contiguous Channel Bonding Sub-Harmonic Handheld RF Mixers Indium Phosphide (InP) MMICs Multi-Color LiFi (WDM-VLC)

Security67 terms

PQC ML-KEM / Kyber ML-DSA / Dilithium SLH-DSA / SPHINCS+QKD Quantum Entanglement Routing DID Verifiable Credentials Zero-Trust Core Architecture Confidential Computing AMD SEV-SNP Intel TDX ARM CCA PLS Artificial Noise Injection RF Fingerprinting AI Adversarial Robustness Federated Poisoning Mitigation Hardware Root of Trust Remote Attestation Zero-Knowledge Proofs Differential Privacy in FL SMPC Blockchain SLA Verification Distributed Ledger Roaming Continuous Micro-Segmentation Micro-Firewall Enclave Mutual TLS 1.3 Post-Quantum SUCI 6G SUPI Protection Anti-IMSI Catcher 6G MitM Radar Defense Anti-Jamming Beam Steering QRNG Supply Chain Attestation Cryptographic Micro-Tokens AI Model Watermarking Explainable AI Audit Trust Index Metric Secure Decommissioning Side-Channel Leakage Shield Honey-Net Slices Automated Vulnerability Patcher Quantum-Resistant VPN Dynamic Key Rotation Post-Quantum Handset eSIM On-Device PUF Authenticator Biometric ZKP Handset Authenticator Smartphone QKD Key Receiver Digital Sovereignty in 6G 6G Edge Sovereign Cloud Universal SIM (uSIM) Post-Quantum Mandate User Privacy Index in 6G Networks Quantum-Resistant 6G Core (SBA-PQC)Heterogeneous Quantum-Classical Key Manager Physical Layer Key Generation (PKG)Jamming-Resilient 6G Drone Link Holographic Deepfake Mitigation Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG)Homomorphic Encrypted Edge Inference Hardware Trojan Detection in Sub-THz Antennas Sub-THz Steganographic Covert Channels AI-Driven Automated Core Fuzzing Hardware Tamper-Proof Distributed RUs Biometric Token Vault on Edge Zero-Trust Distributed Slice Ledger Quantum Entanglement Swapping Node

Services108 terms

Holographic Telepresence Volumetric Streaming HRLLC Tactile Internet Sub-Centimeter Positioning Digital Twin Services Autonomous Mobility Swarms Collective Perception BCI Streaming Multisensory XR Photorealistic Cloud XR Motion-to-Photon Latency Remote Robotic Telesurgery Industrial Synchronous Automation Smart Grid Micro-Protection High-Speed Train Broadband Urban Air Mobility (UAM)Planetary Climate Sensor Mesh Intelligent Roadway Infrastructure Automated Harbor Crane Control Precision Agrotech Swarms Underground Mining Mesh Disaster Search & Rescue Radar Space Exploration Relay Wearable Health Vital Radar Micro-Robotic Drug Delivery Immersive Virtual Classroom Smart Logistics Cold Chain Drone Package Delivery Digital Heritage Preservation Interactive Metaverse Sports Spatial Audio Holography Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Zero-Downtime Tele-Maintenance Micro-Seismic Fault Monitoring Smart Water Distribution Grid Virtual Power Plant (VPP)Automated Valet Parking Construction Exoskeleton Sync Live Volumetric Concerts Wildfire Detection Mesh Autonomous Ocean Cargo Ships Precision Satellite Orbiting Bio-Acoustic Wildlife Tracking Extreme Sports Telemetry Smart Airport Passenger Flow Automated Nuclear Plant Inspection Hyperloop In-Tube Broadband Deep Sea Trench Exploration Ubiquitous Global Emergency SOS Zero-Energy Ambient IoT Tag Terminal-Side ISAC Gesture Tracking Micro-Thermoelectric UE Harvester Holographic Display UE Interface Piezoelectric Handset Vibration Harvester Smartphone Micro-Doppler Vital Signs Wearable 6G Tactile Haptic Driver Zero-Battery Smart Bandage Transceiver Smartphone Micro-Spectroscopy Sensor On-Device Zero-Touch Service Agent Terminal Direct Emergency Mesh Relay Wearable Continuous Bio-Telemetry Handset Spatial Audio Light-Field Tracker Zero-Power Ambient RFID Transceiver Recommendation ITU-R M.2160 (IMT-2030)Ubiquitous Connectivity (IMT-2030)Hyper-Reliable Low Latency (HRLLC)Massive Communication (IMT-2030)Immersive Communication (IMT-2030)Seven Nines Reliability (99.99999%)Connection Density Target (10^7/km²)6G Centimeter Positioning Target 6G Sensing Resolution Metric Next G Alliance National Roadmap Hexa-X-II European Initiative Circular Economy 6G Lifecycle 6G Disaster Resilience Architecture ITU-R Study Group 5 (SG5)Digital Twin City Swarms RAN as a Sensor (RANaaS)Global 6G Harmonization Accord Multi-Static Cooperative Radar Fusion Holographic Stream Orchestrator Decentralized Telco Operations (Telco-DAO)Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Telemetry Autonomous Swarm Robotics Sidelink Structural Health Monitoring Radar Remote Telesurgery Protocol Autonomous eVTOL Air Traffic Control Deep-Sea Acoustic-Optical Hybrid Relay Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Grid Balancing Digital Twin Factory Floor Optimizer Automated Drone Route De-Confliction Underground Mine Autonomous Haulage Container Port Crane Remote Teleoperation Autonomous Truck Platooning Sidelink AI Synthetic Radio Content Generation Precision Agriculture Sensor Swarm Space Tourism Immersive Cabin Network Tactile Metaverse Gaming Protocol Precision Medicine Bio-Sensor Fabrics Sub-Surface Rescue Radar Imaging Real-Time Holographic Classrooms Deep-Space Optical Communications (DSOC)Polar Expedition Satellite Slicing Industrial AMR Sub-Millimeter Navigation Micro-Climate Environmental Monitoring Direct Satellite Emergency SOS Ingress