For a decade, with the uptake of 4G, we have become accustomed to the relentless increase in data and services on the move. The deployment of 5G is advancing crucial key performance indicators (KPIs), along with quality of service (QoS). Setting the horizon to 2030 and later, 6G will take the KPIs to numbers 100–1000 times better than 5G. Yet, the actual disruption of 6G and future networks (FN) will take place following other unprecedented paths.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be exploited in a threadlike fashion, at any level of the network physical infrastructure. This will introduce, to date unknown features, like self-sustaining, self-evolution and high-resilience of small portions of the infrastructure, pioneering the concept of a network of networks. Each segment of the infrastructure will bear a high degree of independence, while working at the same time as a whole, in full orchestration with the rest of the network.

Given such a scenario, this book claims that the established and currently in use paradigms for the design and development of hardware–software (HW–SW) systems, are not appropriate to address the challenges of 6G and, further ahead, of FN. In response, unprecedented design approaches are suggested, relying on a fresh reinterpretation of the standard concept of HW, with specific attention to the network edge and edge intelligence (EI).

This work develops some conceptual tools that may help address the technical challenges resulting from the intricate scenario sketched above. Within the mentioned HW reconceptualization, a pivotal role is forecasted for microtechnologies and nanotechnologies, intended with a broad meaning, which embraces, among others, devices, systems (MEMS/NEMS) and materials.

Jacopo Iannacci (Senior Member of the IEEE) was born in Bologna, Italy in 1977. He received his MSc (Laurea) degree in electronics engineering in 2003 and his PhD in information and telecommunications technology in 2007, both from the University of Bologna, Italy. He received Habilitation as Full Professor in Electronics from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), in 2021. He worked in 2005 and 2006 as visiting researcher at the DIMES Technology Center (currently Else Kooi Lab) of the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands, focusing on packaging and integration of RF-MEMS (radio frequency passives in MEMS technology). In 2016, he visited as seconded researcher the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM in Berlin, Germany, to conduct high-frequency characterization of RF-MEMS components. Since 2007, he has been a researcher (permanent staff) at the Center for Sensors & Devices of Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento, Italy. His research interests and experience fall in the areas of finite element method (FEM) multi-physics modelling, compact (analytical) modeling, design, optimization, integration, packaging, experimental characterization and testing for reliability of MEMS and RF-MEMS devices and networks for sensors and actuators, energy harvesting (EH-MEMS) and telecommunication systems, with applications in the fields of 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), as well as future 6G, Tactile Internet (TI) and Super-IoT. Dr. Iannacci has authored about 150 scientific contributions. He is currently associate editor of Springer Microsystem Technologies, and series editor of the IEEE Communications Magazine (ComMag). He has been involved in several international conferences as symposium chair/co-chair, session chair, technical program committee member, international advisory board member, tutorial lecturer and invited speaker.