Bridging the Trust-Latency Gap in 6G NTN V2X: An Edge-Native Architecture and Standardisation Perspective

KHAN M. T. R., EVER E., Chughtai O., Ever Y. K.

IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, 2026 (Scopus)

Abstract

The integration of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) into sixth-generation (6G) vehicle-to-everything (V2X) systems promises ubiquitous connectivity. However, the high latency of satellite links is incompatible with the real-time requirements of centralised security verification. This article proposes an edge-native trust architecture to resolve this latency-trust trade-off by relocating critical misbehaviour detection to the vehicle. In the proposed architecture, vehicles perform local trust assessment and trust scoring on received V2X messages, enabling real-time safety decisions independent of high-latency remote verification. We explore the standardisation implications of this shift and validate its feasibility through a practical implementation on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano platform. Experimental results demonstrate that a complete end-to-end trust assessment, including cryptographic verification and parsing, can be performed in approximately 7.14 ms. Furthermore, by utilising optimised power profiles, energy consumption is reduced by up to 68% (to 50 mJ/inference) in Eco-mode, achieving response times an order of magnitude faster than centralised NTN architectures. These findings underscore the need to incorporate distributed edge intelligence into future 3GPP and ETSI standards to ensure resilient, energy-efficient 6G V2X operations.