Towards Energy Impact on AI-Powered 6G IoT Networks: Centralized vs. Decentralized

The study presents a systematic machine learning (ML) study of 6G-IoT beamforming optimization (6GBO) using supervised and unsupervised approaches. We compared the predictive power of network, environmental, device, and vision feature groups for 6GBO. Additionally, it addressed other unsupervised perspectives that can enhance 6GBO, including clustering network scenarios using methods such as K-means, DBSCAN, and hierarchical clustering. Several imbalance-aware experiments revealed that network features possess better prediction power than device, environmental, and vision feature groups, as evidenced by their recall, F1-score and ROC-AUC values. For unsupervised ML exploration (assessed using Elbow, Silhouette score, and Davies-Bouldin Index methods), the results indicate that the deployment environment and type of device primarily influence clustering, rather than mobility-based attributes. Furthermore, the explainability analysis showed that bandwidth, IoT sensors, and mobility possess higher global feature importance across the feature groups. In the future, we would apply deep and reinforcement learning techniques to predict throughput/latency or to optimize rewards determined by performance indicators like SNR enhancement

Future 6G networks will rely on highly distributed, AI-native Radio Access Networks (RANs), where communication and AI workloads share a common infrastructure. This evolution, combined with increasing deployment density and continuous AI processing, is expected to significantly increase RAN energy consumption. While Open RAN (O-RAN) introduces a programmable and modular control framework through the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and Service Management and Orchestration (SMO), current approaches remain largely policy-driven, limiting adaptive energy-aware coordination across multiple applications. In parallel, AI-RAN promotes the convergence of AI and RAN infrastructures through AI-for-RAN, AI-on-RAN, and AI-and-RAN paradigms, yet efficient mechanisms to jointly orchestrate performance, latency, and energy remain an open challenge. This article proposes an agentic AI-native RAN architecture that bridges O-RAN's structured control with AI-RAN's unified vision. Leveraging semantic intent abstraction and Large Language Model (LLM)-driven coordination, the framework enables adaptive orchestration, conflict resolution, and energy-aware multi-objective optimization across heterogeneous workloads. Through representative AI-for-RAN and AI-on-RAN use cases, we show how such coordination can improve resource efficiency and reduce operational energy consumption, paving the way toward sustainable 6G networks.

Sixth-generation (6G) networks are increasingly envisioned as AI-native infrastructures integrating communication, sensing, and computing into a unified fabric. However, existing approaches remain largely optimization-centric, relying on closed-loop control with limited reasoning capability. In this paper, we argue for a paradigm shift toward Agentic AI-Native 6G, in which Large Language Model (LLM)-based agents operate as bounded, policy-governed reasoning entities within a semantic control plane layered above deterministic 3GPP infrastructure. We propose a four-layer architecture that integrates deterministic network infrastructure, semantic abstraction of intent and context, hierarchical reasoning, and a distributed multi-agent fabric spanning device, edge, and core domains. To assess feasibility, we develop a proof-of-concept agentic reasoning and orchestration framework and conduct an extensive empirical study using a domain-specific 6G benchmark under realistic deployment constraints. Our results reveal a fundamental tradeoff between reasoning capability and system efficiency, showing that no single model simultaneously satisfies latency, throughput, and accuracy requirements. Instead, heterogeneous deployment of LLM agents across the device--edge--core continuum is necessary to balance these constraints. We further demonstrate that quantization introduces non-uniform effects across models, reinforcing the need for system-level optimization rather than model-level compression alone. These findings establish agentic intelligence as a viable architectural direction for 6G and highlight key challenges in achieving scalable, trustworthy, and self-reasoning networks. All experimental results and evaluation scripts are publicly available to support reproducibility.