SUNRISE-6G

Description:

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 manufacturers).

The project execution is based on 4 pillars:

1. The Implementation of new 6G enablers, complementary to existing ones being developed in SNS Phase 1 projects.
2. A truly scalable and 3GPP compliant Federation solution that provides access to heterogeneous resources and devices from all Europe
3. 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.
4. A commonly adopted Experimentation Plane, which offers common workflows to experimenters.

Within the project, the i2CAT Foundation serves as co-technical manager and participates in the different project’s Work Packages. Specifically, the Catalan research centre leads Work package 6 – 6G Experimentation Facility validation via use cases, which main objectives are setting up and testing SUNRISE-6G facilities, testing the 6G enablers within their functional tests and validate KPIs, generate datasets and run the different use case scenarios. Particularly, i2CAT leads Task 6.3 – Cross-domain Metaverse use-case execution. On the one hand, researchers will focus on evolving an existing end-to-end holographic communications platform to enable cross-domain Metaverse-like services. On the other hand, they will conduct experimentation and demonstration activities over the SUNRISE-6G federated platform, including both objective testing (performance and resource usage levels) and subjective testing (user experience), to assess the potential impact and benefits of the project’s contributions, compared to baseline contributions whenever possible.

Within Work Package 2 – Architecture design and Requirements analysis, i2CAT leads Task 2.2 – Requirements and specifications for the Federation of the Facility, that will perform the elicitation of requirements for the interconnection and federation of the SUNRISE-6G facility, in terms of testbed interconnection. In Work Package 3 – Open Federation and Experimentation Framework, the Catalan research centre leads Task 3.2 – Inter-domain Federation and vertical deployment via East-West APIs. This task handles the design and implementation of the interfaces for communication between the Open Federation platforms across the different facilities.  i2CAT researchers will also contribute to Work Package 4 – Implementation of 6G Library for experimenters. Particularly, they will take part in Task 4.5 – Design and development of an ORAN enabled Network Digital Twin. Such network will be composed of a virtual emulation environment and an ORAN RIC stack controlling the emulator. Finally, in Work Package 5 – Experimentation platforms Interconnection and Federation, i2CAT leads Task 5.1 – Integration of an Open SDK for testbeds. Researchers will implement, package and deliver as open source, reusable assets, software libraries that will support the simplified federation of testbeds, both within the SUNRISE-6G consortium and within future expansion and scale-up, as well as in hackathons to be organised within SUNRISE-6G.

Estimated impact:

SUNRISE-6G fully supports the SNS JU programme’s 6G vision for reinforced European leadership in the development and deployment of next-generation mobile network technologies, connected devices and services while accelerating the digitalisation of European industry and public administrations.

The project oversees the following wider impacts:

• Validate and reduce the introduction risk of candidate 6G technologies, components and architectures at the system or sub-system level, paving the way towards their adoption at standardisation and at the market level.
• Show the applicability of such technologies to efficiently support advanced applications and use cases not supported by current 5G and 5G Advanced systems.
• Harmonise the use of multiple test platforms existing across Europe to build a pan-European, cross-platform framework.
• Extend this pan-European platform to other relevant test platforms outside Europe, namely with existing platforms in the USA.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking as granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.