SNS experimental Infrastructure

The main outcome will be the availability of an evolvable experimental infrastructure for the duration of the SNS programme that covers as many capabilities as possible to:

• demonstrate the performance of key 6G candidate technologies, components, and architectures. To that extent, technologies as identified notably under Stream B Strands may be considered as a baseline
• demonstrate technological feasibility of “better than 5G” KPIs, related indicatively to capacity, ubiquity, speed, latency, reliability, density of users, location accuracy, energy efficiency, service creation time, network management CAPEX/OPEX. It will include capability to incorporate emerging 6G specific KPI’s and the capability to address key KVI’s as developed by ICT52 projects. KPI’s from this project may also be taken as reference objectives in that respect.
• demonstrate innovative radio spectrum technologies and the use and sharing applicable to beyond 5G and 6G spectrum. This should include, if appropriate, licensed, unlicensed, or licensed-shared access. It also includes novel spectrum at THz bands.
• validate a representative end-to-end beyond 5G architecture (and later 6G) including end-to-end service provisioning with slicing capabilities and ability to accommodate technological and architectural disruptions of 6G
• demonstrate performance of disaggregated architectures, both at interface level (interoperability) and at cloud implementation level (Open RAN).
• validate landscape aware and end-to-end security architectures and technologies.
• validate multi access edge computing scenarios and their integration into a complete cloud continuum with representative opportunity from the EU supply side.
• integrate full value chain experiments covering IoT/devices, connectivity, and service delivery.
• support innovative use cases with vertical actors, beyond 5G capabilities, and to support showcasing events
• demonstrate and validate performance of innovative 6G applications with a focus on the Internet of Sense (integration of communication and sensing capabilities) and on demanding immersive applications such as holographics, digital twins and/or XR/VR.
• support to impactful contribution to standards.
• demonstrate the technological feasibility of key societal requirements and objectives such as energy reduction at both platform and use case levels, EMF impact and acceptability, sustainability, and resilience. Other key societal indicators include coverage, accessibility and affordability of the technology.
• validate management functions such as zero-touch and fully automated operation with a high level of trust with security measures and processes including and covering the full technological chain, from device to service provision and execution of trustworthy and exchange of actionable information.

Please refer to the "Specific Challenges and Objectives" section for Stream C in the Work Programme, available under ‘Topic Conditions and Documents - Additional Documents’.

The target beyond 5G/6G experimental infrastructures provides the capability to demonstrate and validate the most ambitious use case scenarios as deriving from the European 6G vision. This includes the capability to interconnect the physical world, the digital world and the human world based on a connectivity and service platform with performance capabilities beyond current 5G platforms and IoT application scenarios. The target experimental platform hence includes validation capabilities at every relevant layer of the IoT-connectivity-service provision value chain, covering at least innovative components and microelectronic capabilities, fixed/multi radio access (including NTN), backhaul, core network, and service technologies and architectures, covering disaggregated scenarios like Open RAN, Core, or blurred RAN/core scenarios. It includes end-to-end virtualisation and network slicing as key components to support multi-tenant environments, integration of private/non-public and public networks and multiple vertical use cases. It also includes the device and IoT integration and the cloud edge capabilities with scale up capabilities for demanding services-based on a clear EU strategy for an edge integration into a complete cloud continuum. The experimental platforms will offer the capability to support disaggregated architectures enabling software and hardware implementations that goes beyond the 5G architecture and that will eventually be able to support 6G services. It is also futureproof by enabling to incorporate novel or disruptive technological approaches, and notably new spectrum and associated technologies, “AI-based service architectures”, communication and computing integration, AI-based zero-touch management and intelligence connectivity, integration of communication and sensing capabilities as typical, though not limitative capabilities. The experimental platform is also capable for supporting and demonstrating key non-functional properties and in particular end-to-end security, security provision in the context of further integration into a larger environment (hyperscalers), energy efficiency at both platform and use case levels, and EMF-awareness.

The demonstration capabilities of the target platform are to be assessed against a set of well-defined KVI’s and KPI’s. As 6G is still largely undefined, proposals may target in the first place KPI’s currently contemplated under authoritative industrial/research environments (e.g., 5G PPP ICT-52-2020 projects, and national 6G initiatives or of other regions of the world). However, the proposals should be flexible enough to accommodate new relevant KPI’s as they become available from the wider 6G community and from potential use cases.

Beyond technological validation of critical components, technologies and architectures, the experimental platform provides the required openness to host vertical use cases pilots. It is desirable that the platforms support open framework principles (e.g., both legal and technical like open APIs) enabling future vertical projects to access and use them. It is also strongly desirable that these facilities are built in a way that allows the evaluation of competing technologies where appropriate.

Such experimental infrastructure may be based on the integration of components in several solutions developed in the context of previous initiatives like the 5G PPP, IoT or cloud computing projects or in the context of ongoing European 6G initiatives, also at the national level, but this is not a pre-requisite.

Each Project may include multiple components in different locations/countries, targeting interconnections between them to create a pan-European experimentation Platform. It is important to note that the stakeholders will facilitate easy replication of results in the same or additional locations/countries if this platform will be selected for large scale trials as part of subsequent phase of Stream D.

The target experimental facilities and their modules should be open and accessible for a long enough period to allow for an easy handover from one phase to the other. Conditions should allow experimental facilities to be easily reused under fair and reasonable conditions for subsequent phases of the SNS programme implementation.

In view of ensuring maximum take up of the validated technologies, proposals should include a significant representation of European industrial players with strong demonstrated impact at standardisation level.