The United Nations estimated that 68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050.
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.
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. It is coordinated by Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) and funded under the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Programme.
6G-REFERENCE: Integrated Circuit and Antenna Component Solutions and Practical Hardware Enablers
The solution envisioned by 6G-REFERENCE consists of ultra-dense cell-free deployments for joint coherent communications and sensing at cm-waves, which balance the benefits of sub-6GHz (reduced pathloss) and mm-wave (wide bandwidth) ranges.
For that, the European 6G-REFERENCE researchers and innovators will develop integrated circuit and antenna component solutions, including dynamic frequency filtering and modulated radiation, to enable efficient spectrum coexistence schemes. They will also deploy practical hardware enablers in terms of low complexity, cost and power consumption that could end up constituting a reference design for future 6G-distributed radios.
The 6G-REFERENCE methodology is based on exploring radio system operation in the 10-15GHz range, developing hardware concepts and showing feasibility in CMOS, and using additive manufacturing for antenna arrays and nanotechnology for sensors.
The SNS JU Community joined by 6G-REFERENCE
6G-REFERENCE is part of the European Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), and the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (SNS 6G-IA), in a joint mission of fostering Europe’s technology sovereignty in 6G.
It belongs to the Call 2 Projects Stream B5 ‘Microelectronics-based Solutions for 6G Networks’ of the SNS JU, to contribute to the strong push towards the advancement of European microelectronics 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 radio frequency (RF) and antenna systems covering frequencies from sub-6 GHz to THz.
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