The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a promising communication paradigm that involves sensors, microcontrollers, and transceivers for an efficient communication and computation system. The infrastructure and the applications shall enable and improve the intelligent management of our city service, workspace, and daily life. This article aims at the future 6G vision of IoT, and discusses the convergence with the Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) system. Comparing with the IoT services included in the 5G deployment, 6G IoT exploits high-density heterogeneous devices involving extremely high capacity, supporting much more robust system architecture and artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart algorithms. The RoF is one of the most promising enablers for the outstanding characters of flexibility and efficiency of 6G IoT systems. This article first introduces the IoT envolution roadmap from 5G toward 6G and the potency of optic fiber and RoF technologies. Then, we present the rapidly expanding RoF market and compatible technologies related to IoT-RoF convergence with the discussion on the current outstanding works in multiple dimensions. Finally, we investigate the challenges ahead for the future RoF supported 6G IoT system and the emerging technology solutions.

中文翻译：

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迈向6G物联网及与RoF系统的融合


物联网 (IoT) 一直是一种很有前途的通信范例，涉及传感器、微控制器和收发器，以实现高效的通信和计算系统。基础设施和应用程序将实现和改善我们的城市服务、工作空间和日常生活的智能管理。本文针对物联网的未来 6G 愿景，讨论与光纤无线电 (RoF) 系统的融合。与5G部署中包含的物联网服务相比，6G物联网利用涉及极高容量的高密度异构设备，支持更强大的系统架构和基于人工智能（AI）的智能算法。 RoF 是 6G 物联网系统灵活性和高效的突出特点的最有前途的推动者之一。本文首先介绍了物联网从5G到6G的演进路线图以及光纤和RoF技术的潜力。然后，我们介绍了快速扩张的RoF市场以及物联网-RoF融合相关的兼容技术，并从多个维度讨论了当前的优秀工作。最后，我们研究了未来支持 RoF 的 6G 物联网系统和新兴技术解决方案面临的挑战。