Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 6G-SANDBOX (Supporting Architectural and technological Network evolutions through an intelligent, secureD and twinning enaBled Open eXperimentation facility)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
6G-SANDBOX key objective is to provide an experimental facility for the SNS-JU program. Four experimental facilities have been defined across Europe (Athens, Berlin, Malaga, and Oulu) with different technologies and functionalities leveraging pre-existent work. 6G-SANDBOX project introduces the concept of Trial Networks, which refers to fully configurable, manageable, and controllable end-to-end networks (including slicing capabilities) that combine digital and physical nodes to validate new technologies and research advancements towards 6G. The validation capabilities provided by the 6G-SANDBOX Trial Networks are extensible in terms of the technologies and the components they incorporate, and flexible in terms of the experimentation processing and the target metrics. To exemplify, a meaningful set of technologies and research advancements are targeted during the project lifetime such as internet of sense, JCAS, RIS, low latency networks, NTN, Digital Twin, network automation, CAPIF to name a few.
The overall three year project is divided into two working period, Period 1 (P1) from January 2023 to June 2024 and Period 2 (P2) from July 2024 to December 2025. 6G-SANDBOX has defined six objectives for the project duration as follows:
Objective 1: Define and release the architecture and the processes/methodology of an experimentation facility, that will be aligned with the related standardization efforts and will support network and technology evolution towards 6G, by providing modular implementation capabilities, open access, reusability of results and components, innovation at all the layers and domains of the service provisioning chain, and sustainability beyond the project lifetime.
Objective 2: Develop and integrate the 6G-SANDBOX ORAN-driven end-to-end physical connectivity infrastructure around Europe, which incorporates 6G technologies that reside at access domain, including disruptive wireless communications, transport network advancements, and core network innovations.
Objective 3: Develop and integrate the 6G-SANDBOX resource management framework that is capable to efficiently deploy trial networks and to control multi-domain vitalized resources, by following an “Infrastructure as a Code” approach where all 6G software components are openly released.
Objective 4: Develop and integrate an automated and API-based experimentation lifecycle framework for performing automated experimentation as a service on 6G-SANDBOX trial networks tailored to the 6G KPIs and KVIs, being capable to efficiently produce and release of reliable analytical results (values of those KPIs and KVIs) for evaluating 6G use cases in easily reusable common formats.
Objective 5: Create an ecosystem under the SNS-JU umbrella, that will allow the adoption of innovative components from Stream B projects and also enable the hosting of 6G use cases, through open calls, during the project lifetime, and through the offering from Stream D projects, in the long-term.
Objective 6: Create a tangible socio-economic impact as well as maximize technological and business potential through targeted communication, dissemination, and standardization initiatives that will set capacity building capabilities.
The overall three year project is divided into two working period, Period 1 (P1) from January 2023 to June 2024 and Period 2 (P2) from July 2024 to December 2025. 6G-SANDBOX has defined six objectives for the project duration as follows:
Objective 1: Define and release the architecture and the processes/methodology of an experimentation facility, that will be aligned with the related standardization efforts and will support network and technology evolution towards 6G, by providing modular implementation capabilities, open access, reusability of results and components, innovation at all the layers and domains of the service provisioning chain, and sustainability beyond the project lifetime.
Objective 2: Develop and integrate the 6G-SANDBOX ORAN-driven end-to-end physical connectivity infrastructure around Europe, which incorporates 6G technologies that reside at access domain, including disruptive wireless communications, transport network advancements, and core network innovations.
Objective 3: Develop and integrate the 6G-SANDBOX resource management framework that is capable to efficiently deploy trial networks and to control multi-domain vitalized resources, by following an “Infrastructure as a Code” approach where all 6G software components are openly released.
Objective 4: Develop and integrate an automated and API-based experimentation lifecycle framework for performing automated experimentation as a service on 6G-SANDBOX trial networks tailored to the 6G KPIs and KVIs, being capable to efficiently produce and release of reliable analytical results (values of those KPIs and KVIs) for evaluating 6G use cases in easily reusable common formats.
Objective 5: Create an ecosystem under the SNS-JU umbrella, that will allow the adoption of innovative components from Stream B projects and also enable the hosting of 6G use cases, through open calls, during the project lifetime, and through the offering from Stream D projects, in the long-term.
Objective 6: Create a tangible socio-economic impact as well as maximize technological and business potential through targeted communication, dissemination, and standardization initiatives that will set capacity building capabilities.
To expand the already large-scale facilities, the project issued two open calls during the first project period. Opening two open calls in P1 was a decision made to accelerate the schedule compared to the original work plan. The publication of Open Call 1 happened in April 2023 with a deadline in June 2023. Open Call 2 was also pulled in and launched in November 2023 with a deadline for submission on February 29, 2024. The third parties selected via Open Calls 1 and 2 provided technology expansions to the platforms. Work was completed around Ray Tracing calibration for Digital Twin, NWDAF, Release 16 devices to name a few. Aside from expanding the platform, other third parties have leveraged the platform to start running experimentation in Open Call 2 to be continuing in P-2.
Engagement with 6G-SANDBOX also happens outside the third-party funding via direct interactions and/or MoU. For example, companies such as Vicinity, VDI, and other not-yet-announced companies have provided their technologies to expand the testbeds (https://6g-sandbox.eu/established-collaborations/ ). Some technologies such as antenna, RIS, and small cells are directly participating into experimentation planned in Period 2. The European Space Agency, ITRI, and the University of Malaya signed an MoU with 6G-SANDBOX to engage in joined experimentations. Work with ITRI led to an indoor JCAS AI-enabled detection of a person demonstrator. Other MoUs have been signed but have not been announced yet. Engagement with National initiatives on 6G was also started in P1 and will realize and become visible in P2. The latest information is available on our news portal at https://6g-sandbox.eu/news/(opens in new window) .
Within the SNS JU program, 6G-SANDBOX has engaged actively with different projects to discuss experimentation in the framework of their activities. The collaboration with CENTRIC led to two joined demonstrators, which were showcased at the MWC 2024 and the EUCNC 2024 conference. Engagement with 6G-SHINE led to very interesting work around channel sounding which was also showcased at the EUCNC 2024 conference. More work is planned in P2 with additional projects from the SNS JU Call 1.
The consortium created and submitted 12 Deliverables covering different aspects such as technical progress, definitions, and project management. The public Deliverables are available on the project website at https://6g-sandbox.eu/dissemination/deliverables/(opens in new window) .
The project achieved 11 Milestones out of the 10 foreseen during Period 1. One Milestone from Period 2 was achieved in P1 when OC2 was published ahead of schedule (originally planned for P2).
The project received a lot of attention from the community via the open call procedure. A total of 35 proposals were received for OC1, well above expectations. This led to a selection of seven projects which have been initiated and almost all completed in P1.
Engagement with 6G-SANDBOX also happens outside the third-party funding via direct interactions and/or MoU. For example, companies such as Vicinity, VDI, and other not-yet-announced companies have provided their technologies to expand the testbeds (https://6g-sandbox.eu/established-collaborations/ ). Some technologies such as antenna, RIS, and small cells are directly participating into experimentation planned in Period 2. The European Space Agency, ITRI, and the University of Malaya signed an MoU with 6G-SANDBOX to engage in joined experimentations. Work with ITRI led to an indoor JCAS AI-enabled detection of a person demonstrator. Other MoUs have been signed but have not been announced yet. Engagement with National initiatives on 6G was also started in P1 and will realize and become visible in P2. The latest information is available on our news portal at https://6g-sandbox.eu/news/(opens in new window) .
Within the SNS JU program, 6G-SANDBOX has engaged actively with different projects to discuss experimentation in the framework of their activities. The collaboration with CENTRIC led to two joined demonstrators, which were showcased at the MWC 2024 and the EUCNC 2024 conference. Engagement with 6G-SHINE led to very interesting work around channel sounding which was also showcased at the EUCNC 2024 conference. More work is planned in P2 with additional projects from the SNS JU Call 1.
The consortium created and submitted 12 Deliverables covering different aspects such as technical progress, definitions, and project management. The public Deliverables are available on the project website at https://6g-sandbox.eu/dissemination/deliverables/(opens in new window) .
The project achieved 11 Milestones out of the 10 foreseen during Period 1. One Milestone from Period 2 was achieved in P1 when OC2 was published ahead of schedule (originally planned for P2).
The project received a lot of attention from the community via the open call procedure. A total of 35 proposals were received for OC1, well above expectations. This led to a selection of seven projects which have been initiated and almost all completed in P1.
Progress beyond state of the art has been published during P1 in 26 publications ranging from white papers to journal papers and scientific conference publications and or presentations. Progress was achieved in the following domains at network level: 6G KPI, security of 6G networks, Network federation, Trial network automation, AI user-centric network, and slice automation. Demo and presentation include work around JCAS, AI-enabled air interface… At the platform level, the benchmarking approach opens an interesting avenue around the calibration of experimentation and understanding the impact of the lower layer on virtualized systems.
Other progress is currently booked on energy consumption optimization via AI systems, RIS to name a few.
Other progress is currently booked on energy consumption optimization via AI systems, RIS to name a few.