Beyond Per-Request QoS: Coordinating Industrial Workflows with B5G/6G Network Capabilities

Abstract

Beyond-5G (B5G) and 6G networks are expected to enable more complex industrial services, which often operate according to multi-phase workflows with phase-specific communication requirements. However, current interaction between applications and networks remains predominantly request-driven: Quality of Service (QoS) is requested at each workflow phase transition and evaluated independently, without explicit consideration of upcoming demand or network's near-term capability. This mismatch limits the ability of both sides to plan ahead, often resulting in foreseeable incompatibilities, even service disruptions. This article presents a capability-aware coordination framework for workflow-based industrial services. Within a bounded planning window, the network exposes the QoS profiles it can sustainably support, while the industrial side maps upcoming workflow phases to these disclosed capabilities and submits the resulting demand trajectory for joint assessment. The framework also supports coordinated updates when network conditions change during execution. An industrial video inspection case study on a real B5G system, complemented by large-scale simulation, illustrates that such coordination can improve service continuity, reduce disruptive rejections, and increase workflow completion under heavy load. The results suggest that future industrial networking should move beyond reactive per-request QoS handling toward forward-looking, capability-aware, workflow-level coordination.