6G-TERRAIN contributes to sustainability by supporting the European Green Deal through research on energy-efficient 6G technologies. The project focuses on areas such as self-configuration, Native AI optimization, and ICAS-based solutions, which are expected to significantly improve energy efficiency. By reducing the energy cost of future 6G services, 6G-TERRAIN also aims to enable wider global adoption and greater societal impact.

The project is structured around three main pillars:

1. Native AI approaches for zero-touch 6G networks and conflict resolution.
2. Natural Language IBN for simplified service definition and management.
3. ICAS-enabled TNTN to provide reliable and ubiquitous communication and sensing over large areas.

6G-TERRAIN, which stands for 6G TERrestrial & non-teRrestrial integration through an AI-Native architecture, is a research project focused on creating a unified network infrastructure for the next generation of mobile communications. It aims to design and validate an automation architecture that allows for the seamless integration of multi-stakeholder and multi-technology nodes, including both ground-based and airborne systems.

The “Network of Networks” vision in 6G refers to the seamless integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial infrastructures into a unified, AI-driven ecosystem. It aims to improve connectivity, reliability, and sustainability by enabling autonomous operation, collaboration between different network providers, and dynamic management of diverse technologies and services. 6G-TERRAIN supports this vision by developing automation architectures for fully integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.

The evolution towards Natural Language IBN enables administrators to interact with networks through intuitive, human-like instructions rather than complex scripts or APIs. By leveraging LLMs and Generative AI, the system can interpret goals, validate requests, and automatically translate them into technical actions across terrestrial and non-terrestrial domains. This significantly reduces service creation time and minimizes configuration errors while making network management more accessible. Natural Language IBN is a key step toward fully autonomous, zero-touch 6G network operations.

The 6G-TERRAIN project plans to evolve NL-driven IBN through the introduction of a Cognitive Intent Handler, an intelligent layer that connects human administrators with the underlying network infrastructure. This component will manage the complete intent lifecycle by interpreting natural language requests, validating their meaning and feasibility, and translating them into executable network actions across terrestrial and non-terrestrial domains. By combining LLMs, CoT reasoning, Knowledge Graphs, and Reinforcement Learning, the framework will autonomously decompose complex requests, resolve ambiguities, and optimize service orchestration. Through this chatbot-like interaction model, 6G-TERRAIN aims to enable faster service deployment, reduced configuration errors, and fully autonomous zero-touch 6G network management.

Intent-Based Networking (IBN) is an advanced network management approach that allows operators to define the desired outcome of the network rather than manually configuring every technical detail. Instead of focusing on how the network should operate, administrators specify what they want the network to achieve, such as guaranteeing low latency or service reliability. Intelligent automation continuously monitors the infrastructure and adjusts configurations to keep the network aligned with these objectives. This simplifies operations, reduces human error, and improves overall network efficiency.

Current AI-based network management solutions typically optimize individual network functions in isolation, often requiring significant manual configuration and coordination. In contrast, the Native AI approach developed in 6G-TERRAIN aims to create a fully autonomous, end-to-end intelligent TNTN ecosystem. It enables self-configuration, self-healing, and conflict resolution across terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, while also using Generative AI and LLMs to translate human intents into network actions automatically.

Zero-touch networks are fully autonomous communication systems that can self-configure, self-heal, and self-optimize with minimal human intervention. Powered by Native AI and intent-based networking, they enable operators to define network goals in natural language while the system automatically manages and adapts the infrastructure. In 6G-TERRAIN, zero-touch concepts are applied to integrated TNTN to reduce operational complexity, improve efficiency, and lower operating costs.

Self-configuration is the ability of a network to automatically deploy, configure, and adapt its infrastructure and services with minimal human intervention. In 6G-TERRAIN, self-configuration is enhanced through Native AI and LLMs, which can translate high-level human intents into automated network actions. This helps reduce manual configuration effort, improve flexibility, and support faster service deployment in complex 6G environments.

Self-healing refers to a network’s ability to automatically detect, diagnose, and recover from faults, failures, or performance degradations without requiring manual intervention. In integrated TNTN systems, where network conditions can rapidly change due to mobility, weather, or varying traffic demands, self-healing is essential for maintaining reliable and uninterrupted connectivity. By continuously monitoring network performance and automatically correcting issues, self-healing can reduce downtime, improve QoS, and help future 6G systems meet demanding SLAs.