Non-Orthogonal Physical Layer (NOPHY) Design towards 5G Evolution and 6G

5G has achieved large-scale commercialization across the world and the global 6G research and development is accelerating. To sup-port more new use cases, 6G mobile communication systems should satisfy extreme performance requirements far beyond 5G. The physical layer key technologies are the basis of the evolution of mobile communication sys-tems of each generation, among which three key technologies, i.e., duplex, waveform and multiple access, are the iconic characteristics of mobile com-munication systems of each generation. In this paper, we systematically review the development history and trend of the three key technologies and define the Non-Orthogonal Physical Layer (NOPHY) concept for 6G, in-cluding Non-Orthogonal Duplex (NOD), Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) and Non-Orthogonal Waveform (NOW). Firstly, we analyze the necessity and feasibility of NOPHY from the perspective of capacity gain and implementation complexity. Then we discuss the recent progress of NOD, NOMA and NOW, and highlight several candidate technologies and their potential performance gain. Finally, combined with the new trend of 6G, we put forward a unified physical layer design based on NOPHY that well balances performance against flexibility, and point out the pos-sible direction for the research and development of 6G physical layer key technologies.