NEWTON proposes a revolutionary approach of a converged wireless-optical network architecture that makes reality an efficient 6G Cell-Free (CF)-based access network for high-density and high-coverage deployments. The proposed architecture takes also full advantage of novel solutions for both the radio-edge and regional-edge domains, as well as for efficient network-management approaches, targeting to achieve sub-second latency, more than million devices per square kilometer connection density and user-experienced data-rate up to 10Gbps. NEWTON research program will engage in cutting-edge research to advance and assess a wide range of techniques, tools and methodologies that will harness the innovative capabilities provided by the CF technology to their fullest extent and establish the groundwork for efficient end-to-end services in 6G network environments. The NEWTON approach will be directed toward pursuing three ambitious objectives, each aligned with an interdisciplinary but interconnected research domain. The three objectives are linked to challenges at the radio-edge, the regional-edge, and the network-management domains. At the radio-edge domain, NEWTON aims at developing Artificial-Intelligence (AI)-driven models in the access domain, focusing on the CF technology, targeting the efficient acquisition of the Channel State Information (CSI) in dense CF networks, while supporting infrastructures with high-number of antennas. In the regional-edge domain, NEWTON targets to develop scalable solutions for the interconnection of data-centers, to enable distributed neuromorphic architectures, while also being in line with the Open RAN initiative. Finally, at the network management domain, NEWTON will develop novel AI-based resource allocation solutions, targeting the optimal utilization of both networking and computational resources.

SMARTY invokes a cloud-edge continuum, made from heterogeneous systems, that protects data-in-transit and data-in-process in order to offer a trustful fabric to run AI processes. The securitization occurs by employing novel accelerators for quantum resilient communications, confidential computing, software defined perimeters and swarm formation, offering multiple layers of security. Semantic programmability and graph-management open the door to drag-and-drop approaches in deploying services in a fast and reliable manner. SMARTY is proposed within the context of different key sectors in Europe : automotive, fintech, telco and industrial settings; the technology proposed in SMARTY will be matured within the lifetime of the project and tested through five use cases. SMARTY is supported by large European industry players and well as by 13 SMEs which will seek a visible platform to develop their products and gain visibility towards high-growth. SMARTY’s major suppliers and OEMs and reputable academic partners provide a great opportunity for these 13 SMEs to mature their technologies in a challenging but safe environment. The results of SMARTY are applicable to different vertical sectors and can be transported to different use cases. Strong synergies with existing efforts in the area of edge computing, European processors and trustworthy AI are envisioned and planned within SMARTY.

EMPOWER-6G proposes a novel converged optical-wireless architecture that realizes an efficient 6G Cell-Free (CF)-based access network for high-density and high-coverage deployments. The proposed architecture takes full advantage of the distributed processing CF concept, as well as of wireless mmWave solutions, while being in-line with the O-RAN Alliance. Specifically, the EMPOWER-6G vision is based on the development of novel solutions at the radio access domain by enabling emerging CF technologies, while also contributing innovations at the optical transport domain and significantly evolving the MEC system towards fully elastic Edge Computing. The EMPOWER-6G network configuration deploys a distributed Edge infrastructure with Data Centres (DCs) structured in 2 tiers, featuring Radio Edge Regional Edge nodes, where the former DCs hosts the Network Functions of the (virtualized) RAN fully aligned with the O-RAN specifications, while the latter DCs host non-real-time network functions. Thus, EMPOWER-6G will shape a novel 6G network configuration by addressing challenges at the radio-edge, the regional-edge, and the network-management domains. At the radio-edge domain, EMPOWER-6G aims at designing novel CF networking mechanisms that will allow the significant scaling up of Radio Unit (RU) deployment in a cost-effective manner, by exploiting the application of the distributed processing CF concept, based on the disaggregation of the traditional CF Central Processing Unit (CPU) into Distributed Units (DUs) and a Central Unit (CU), in line with the 3GPP NG-RAN architecture. In parallel, EMPOWER-6G proposes an innovative mmWave Hybrid MIMO solution, with beam-steering and beam-sharing support. At the regional-edge domain, EMPOWER-6G aims at providing a new design for an optical regional edge network with FTTH support in order to achieve optimum functional splitting options, while also supporting novel control-plane protocols for CF networking support.

6G is expected to emerge as key enabler for the intelligent digital society of 2030 and beyond, providing superior performance via groundbreaking access technologies, such as joint communication and sensing, cell-free, Radio Intelligent Surfaces, and ubiquitous wireless intelligence . Most importantly, 6G is expected to trigger a total rethink of network architecture design, which builds on the key idea of new stakeholders entering into the value chain of future networks. The SUNRISE-6G approach is inspired by the “network of networks” concept of 6G Networks, aiming to integrate all private and public infrastructures under a massively scalable internet-like architecture. SUNRISE-6G similarly aspires to create a federation of 6G test infrastructures in a pan-european facility that will support converged Testing as a Service (TaaS) workflows and tools, a unified catalogue of 6G enablers publicly accessible by experimenters, and cross-domain vertical application onboarding. Experimentation and vertical application onboarding are offered via a Tenant Web Portal, that acts as a single-entry point to the facility, serving end users (e.g., experimenters) and tenants (e.g., vertical developers, infrastructure owners, 6G component manufactures). The project execution is based on 4 pillars, delivering: (a) the Implementation of new 6G enablers, complementary to existing ones being developed in SNS Phase 1 projects, (b) A truly scalable and 3GPP compliant Federation solution that provides access to heterogeneous resources and devices from all Europe, (c) A Federated AI plane aligned with AIaaS and MLOPS paradigms, which promotes a collaborative approach to AI research which benefits immensely from scaling-up datasets and models and (d) a commonly adopted Experimentation Plane, which offers common workflows to experimenters.

The ambition of the NATWORK project is to set the foundations and deploy the very first economically realistic, energy efficient and viable bio-inspired AI-based 6G cybersecurity and resilience framework for intelligent networking and services, taking a holistic approach and considering all elements in a cross-sector business environment to address the diverse requirements and challenges that arise. The NATWORK project aims to develop a novel AI-leveraged self-adaptive security mechanism for 6G networks based on resilient bio-mimicry principles. The goal is to improve the malleability and the self-resilience of future 6G network ecosystems to offer augmented and secure services at the lowest energy costs. The principle premise is to empower various entities of 6G ecosystems with the ability to self-regulate their conditions to provide service continuity in compliance with service SLAs. The Secure Federated Learning architecture of NATWORK will be based on decentralized defensive AI models embedded in dis-aggregated 6G network physical layer, smart Edge Network Interface Cards and RAN devices with P4-based programmable data plane and advanced DPU acceleration, with local feature extraction at wire-speed and AI model training. Among the key 6G security challenges that NATWORK aims to alleviate are Moving Target Defense and adaptive response to incidents, the employment of Net Zero AI and energy-efficient security for sustainable networks, the Detection of new forms of attacks bearing deep control flow monitoring as well as the elaboration of a continuum of security for payload deployment fostering secure migration of novel forms of in-network operations and secure distributed computations.