2030 and beyond, Europe and the world will face opportunities and challenges of growth and sustainability of tremendous magnitude; to pro-actively tackle issues of green deal efficiency, digital inclusion and assurance of health and safety in a post pandemic world will be key. A powerful vision is needed to connect physical, digital, and human worlds, firmly anchored in future wireless technology and architectural research. The Hexa-X vision calls for an x-enabler fabric of connected intelligence, networks of networks, sustainability, global service coverage, extreme experience, and trustworthiness. Wireless technologies are of critical relevance for our society and economy today; their importance for growth will continue to steadily increase with 5G and its evolution, enabling new ecosystems and services motivated by strongly growing traffic and trillions of devices. The Hexa-X project ambition includes to develop key technology enablers in the areas of (i) fundamentally new radio access technologies at high frequencies and high-resolution localization and sensing; (ii) connected intelligence though AI-driven air interface and governance for future networks, and (iii) 6G architectural enablers for network disaggregation and dynamic dependability. Europe has been a leader in wireless network technologies for decades. It is now critical to unleash our best brains in the joint research ambition of a “flagship” project to maintain the global industry leadership for the B5G/6G era. The Hexa-X flagship is a unique effort of vision, and an opportunity for disruptive impact in sustainable growth and technology experience in Europe and worldwide!

We are at the “eve” of a fundamental transition in 5G, and the aspiration of 5G-EVE is to create the foundations for a pervasive roll-out of end-to-end 5G networks in Europe. 5G-EVE supports this fundamental transition by offering to vertical industries and to all 5GPPP Phase3 projects facilities to validate their network KPIs and their services. Important representatives of these vertical industries are directly involved as partners of 5G-EVE exactly to influence the design of the end-to-end 5G services, and to provide an early assessment. The 5G-EVE end-to-end facility consists of the interconnection of four 5G-site-facilities (France, Spain, Italy, Greece), which have been selected because of their considerable previous work with vertical industries and standardisation bodies, on top of their 5G technology competences. 5G-EVE aims at creating synergies between a significant number of facilities that will ensure sustainability and impact in terms of exploitation. The 5G-EVE facility will enable experiments with: (a) heterogeneous access, including NR, licensed/unlicensed spectrum, advanced spectrum management; (b) Mobile Edge Computing, backhaul, core/service technologies; (c) means for site-interworking and multi-site/domain/technology slicing/orchestration. 5G-EVE will be initially compliant with 3GPP Rel. 15 and, later on, with Rel. 16. Industrial verticals will be facilitated in the specification/analysis of experiments through: (a) intent-based, and other high-level, interfaces; (b) means for advanced 5G testing, i.e., for KPI analysis, technology benchmarking, performance diagnosis. A VNF pool, including open source and proprietary, radio/network/service, components will be developed and made available. 5G-EVE will impact standards, and has the potential and strategy for ensuring the sustainability of the facility beyond the project lifetime, therefore becoming a cornerstone of the 5G PPP programme and beyond.

5G promises increased connectivity, high data rates, and ultimately new services. The first 5G release standard in 3GPP will be available by June 2018 with pre-commercial deployment in Korea soon after. Whilst 5G will meet current demand, the exponential rise in demand for wireless connectivity will ultimately require Tbps connectivity in indoor spaces. The future network will use an all optical fibre core, and an ultra-high data rate wireless ‘bridge’ to the User. WORTECS focuses on the goal of ultra-high data rate wireless. High-frequency mm-wave (in the band above 90 GHz) radio communications will be combined with optical wireless communications in the infrared and visible regions of the optical spectrum, using novel heterogeneous networking concepts. A compelling virtual reality application will be used to showcase the capability of the WORTECS network. The project will deliver two Proof-of-Concept demonstrations. An ultra-high density LiFi/Radio network providing multi-Gbps to virtual reality terminals will be developed, and an ultra-high data rate Proof-of-Concept capable of Tbps networking will also be targeted. WORTECS brings together innovative, world leading LiFi SMEs Oledcomm (France) and PureLiFi (UK), Global telecommunications operator Orange (France) and research institutes BCOM (France) and IHP (Germany). These are joined by university research leaders in optical wireless communications from the University of Oxford (UK) and the University of Las Palmas (Spain). The consortium has the dual ambition of proposing new scientific solutions beyond 5G while transferring these technologies from research labs to industrial world. A successful project will both showcase technologies required to alleviate the radio spectrum crunch, and provide substantial benefits to EU citizens through the exploitation of results by WORTECS commercial partners.

SUSTAIN-6G will develop a holistic sustainability framework in the context of 6G, addressing all three sustainability areas (environmental, societal, economic), and factors impacting sustainable 6G technology and 6G technology for improving verticals’ sustainability. The framework will be applied to key vertical sectors, in an end-to-end manner, considering the full lifecycle of assets. SUSTAIN-6G will identify the cross-points between what sustainability needs are, which challenges 6G and verticals need to consider, what 6G should do to address these challenges, and how society and economy benefit from responsible innovation. To achieve this, the project will provide a driving force for multiple activities and a hub, to integrate research and innovation from previous and ongoing projects, develop innovative concepts and solutions, and address gaps and trade-offs in technology, processes and methodologies. The concepts and solutions will be validated and evaluated by proof-of-concepts on their sustainability impact and performance. The insights from these PoCs, and the proven processes and methodologies will be consolidated into guidelines, best practices and roadmaps to drive the full integration of sustainability aspects into future communication and vertical systems, in close collaboration with stakeholders and other SNS projects, and for use across the EU and beyond. The outputs and impact of SUSTAIN-6G will provide the foundation for industry-wide standardisation that will enhance existing ecosystems, help to shape a sustainable future that develops and thrives within planetary boundaries, and strives to protect and restore the environment, while respecting EU values and rules. Recognising the complexity and multifaceted characteristics of sustainability, SUSTAIN-6G will achieve these objectives through its multidisciplinary consortium, composed of 6G and vertical technology, social science, and economic experts, and with relevant external stakeholders.

5G-ENSURE will define and deliver a 5G Security Architecture, shared and agreed by the various 5G stakeholders. It will specify, develop and release an initial set of useful and usable security enablers for 5G. These enablers will be selected for their relevance in addressing some of the foremost security concerns in order to generate the trust and confidence necessary for 5G to be widely adopted and to deliver its promises through innovative business applications. The 5G-ENSURE project will also initiate a 5G Security testbed vision and initial set-up in which the security enablers will be made available. Moreover, the potential of the developed 5G Security enablers will be showcased and demonstrated in the context of carefully selected 5G security use cases (e.g. use cases related to cybersecurity and aerospace). Coupled with this, 5G-ENSURE will be closely linked to the overall 5G PPP programme through active participation in common activities and fora. Specifically, 5G-ENSURE will be the project that creates and animates a dedicated 5G PPP Security Working Group to coordinate the various security-related activities. 5G-ENSURE is led by a strong consortium bringing together the appropriate and complementary skills, including standards involvement and deep telco understanding, along with an extensive network of interested parties, and have a proven track-record in coordination. 5G-ENSURE will avail itself of the support of a group of international opinion leaders.