Project description
The next radio waves of wireless networks
As global data demand soars, wireless networks consume increasing amounts of electricity. Without new solutions, the environmental impact of data transmission could soon become uncontrollable. To address this, the ERC-funded WePhICom project seeks to redefine wireless communication by harnessing the physics of radio waves and their interaction with programmable metasurfaces. It aims to engineer these smart surfaces, which can dynamically bend, steer and filter electromagnetic waves, enabling in-transit data processing. This not only improves efficiency, but also reduces power consumption, costs, and carbon footprint. WePhICom’s innovation could lead to smarter and greener future wireless networks that are able to handle the huge data demands of applications from self-driving cars to global sensing systems.
Objective
From Marconi’s telegraph without wires to today’s cellular networks, wireless communication has shaped our world, with deep impacts on virtually all aspects of society. This astonishing development is the result of parallel progress in physics (propagation, antennas, radio-frequency (RF) devices, semiconductors) and engineering (information theory, digital signal processing, computer architectures). Nevertheless, the ever-growing demand for wireless capacity is pushing the current technology towards unsurmountable barriers in hardware complexity and power consumption, such that the present trend will soon become unsustainable. In order to overcome these barriers, radically new approaches are needed.
Building on the highly complementary research of the four PIs in a synergistic manner, spanning the physics of RF wave manipulation via metasurfaces, the physics-consistent modeling of devices and communication channels, the investigation of information theoretic fundamental limits of reliable communication and sensing, and the design of efficient signal processing and coding algorithms and of the hardware computational platforms to achieve such limits, Waves, Physics, Information, and Computation (WePhICom) shall lay out the fundamental theory and experimental validation for a new sustainable path to the next wireless communication evolution cycle. We shall develop a fresh look at the problem of information transmission and environment/parameter sensing via electromagnetic waves supported by the recent progress in metasurfaces. The ambition of WePhICom is to lay the physical and information theoretic/algorithmic foundations for the next “quantum leap”of wireless communication technology, paving a sustainable way to support the needs of the information age of tomorrow.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications radio technology radio frequency
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-SyG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
10623 Berlin
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.