The Project
What is 6G-REFERENCE?
With the aim of improving coherent wireless communication and sensing beyond what is
currently possible with 5G, 6G-REFERENCE is a Research and Innovation Project granted by
Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) spanning 3 years, initiated in
January 2024, and teamed by 10 partners from eight European countries.
What is 6G-REFERENCE?
With the aim of improving coherent wireless communication and sensing beyond what is
currently possible with 5G, 6G-REFERENCE is a Research and Innovation Project granted by
Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) spanning 3 years, initiated in
January 2024, and teamed by 10 partners from eight European countries.
Why 6G-REFERENCE?
European microelectronics need a strong push towards the advancement in providing solutions
for next-generation communication networks and devices at various levels of the device data
processing chain, from baseband and mixed-signal processing to RF and antenna systems,
covering frequency ranges from sub-6GHz up to THz.
Why 6G-REFERENCE?
European microelectronics need a strong push towards the advancement in providing solutions
for next-generation communication networks and devices at various levels of the device data
processing chain, from baseband and mixed-signal processing to RF and antenna systems,
covering frequency ranges from sub-6GHz up to THz.
The 6G-REFERENCE Vision
The vision of 6G-REFERENCE is that cell-free joint communication and sensing systems
operating at the 10-15GHz range will play a vital role in future 6G networks, especially in urban
scenarios where 6G will need to rely on a sustainable solution to cope with the ever-increasing
traffic demands and population densification, while providing disruptive capabilities like the
materialization of the internet of sense.
The 6G-REFERENCE Vision
The vision of 6G-REFERENCE is that cell-free joint communication and sensing systems
operating at the 10-15GHz range will play a vital role in future 6G networks, especially in urban
scenarios where 6G will need to rely on a sustainable solution to cope with the ever-increasing
traffic demands and population densification, while providing disruptive capabilities like the
materialization of the internet of sense.
6G-REFERENCE Impact
SCIENTIFIC
The project targets improvement well beyond the state-of-the-art in the development of hardware solutions addressing the main open challenges of future densified cell-free coherent transmission and sensing systems. Proposing new solutions for all the stages in the data processing chain, from antenna system to digital processing.
We ensure a wide Impact on the communications hardware design community, including those addressing antenna design, analogue and high-frequency electronics, processors and digital electronics. We also aim to perform system level simulations to show how the new hardware fits at system level and how it can improve the system performance and capabilities. As a result, the project will efficiently bridge the gap between the communication and signal processing community and the hardware design community.
ECONOMIC
6G-REFERENCE does not pretend to be a pure scientific research activity increasing scientific knowledge, but it is committed to develop a technological roadmap to bring some of its outcomes to real commercial deployments, thus contributing to the reinforcement of the European microelectronics sector.
The United Nations estimated that 68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Therefore, the global population will require increased mobile traffic due to the densification, so sustainable solutions addressing this densification, such as the proposed by 6G-REFERENCE, will have high success probabilities: the flexible and densified cells-free deployment, which are the main target of hardware enablers developed in 6G-REFERENCE.
SOCIETAL
The role of 6G-REFERENCE is to contribute to solving the societal needs in terms of the ever-increasing traffic demands in dense populated areas, by developing the hardware enablers addressing the main open challenges of dense distributed coherent transmissions systems.
6G-REFERENCE will contribute to the main 6G revolution, in which communication networks stop being just that and become sensing networks capable of measuring the surroundings and providing situational awareness and environmental quality to the users.
Exploiting this connection between the digital and real worlds opens the opportunity to new business models and applications that will not only provide economic growth but will directly change how humans perceive our lives.
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
