Future 6G X-haul networks must satisfy strict latency and service reliability requirements, placing significant pressure on metro-access transport architectures. As deployments become denser, longer and more heterogeneous routes intensify physical-layer impairments, making feasibility assurance and Quality-of-Transport (QoT) evaluation increasingly complex. To address these challenges, this work proposes an AI-driven converged metro-access Optical Network-as-a-Service (ONaaS) architecture based on coherent Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) transmission using Digital Subcarrier Multiplexing (DSCM). An experimentally characterized transceiver impairment model is embedded into a network-level simulator to perform end-to-end feasibility analysis under strict latency and BER constraints. The results show that connectivity is primarily bounded by accumulated impairments, while Distributed Unit (DU) densification improves performance mainly by shortening path lengths, with limited benefit beyond moderate routing depth. To enable scalable operation, a lightweight machine-learning-based BER estimator is developed for rapid QoT prediction. Trained on a minimal deployment scenario, the Random Forest model generalizes across DU densities and topologies with R 2 > 0 . 98 , reducing evaluation time by several orders of magnitude. A techno-economic assessment further indicates up to 75% reduction in DU-site transceivers and 27%–30% energy savings compared to Point-to-Point (P2P) provisioning, demonstrating the efficiency and scalability of AI-enabled P2MP metro-access convergence for 6G.
Zeb et al. (2026) studied this question.