Service-based architecture in the 5G core network, disaggregated RAN, and network slicing are a few of the 5G network's innovative paradigms. There are however new requirements for 6G, such as the efficient use of integrated cloud resources, end-to-end network programmability, and the dynamic integration of multiple connectivity domains to realize intelligent connectivity across increasingly pervasive cloud environments. The 6G-Cloud project will research, develop, and validate key technologies to realize an artificial intelligence (AI)-native and cloud-friendly system architecture atop the cloud continuum. It will integrate cloud resources offered by multiple stakeholders and allow network functions from different 6G network segments to be composed flexibly and dynamically based on service needs in hybrid cloud environments. 6G-Cloud will address the following key topics: i) designing a holistic, AI-native service-oriented 6G system architecture atop a cloud continuum; ii) developing AI-driven cloud continuum and management frameworks and business interfaces for a multistakeholder environment; iii) defining an AI/machine learning (ML) framework for native-AI support in the 6G system; iv) supporting the 6G "network-of-networks" concept using service-oriented network design. 6G-Cloud will incorporate scalability, sustainability, resilience, and security requirements into system design. The concept will be validated by three well-defined proofs-of-concept and promoted through 6G architectural standardization work and open-source projects to reach maximum impact.

The 6G-SANDBOX project brings a complete and modular facility for the European experimentation ecosystem (in line and under the directions set by SNS JU), which is expected to support for the next decade technology and research validation processes needed in the pathway towards 6G. The target is at technologies and research advances, that span over the entire service provisioning chain, and refer to user/data, control and management planes. In this direction, 6G-SANDBOX introduces the concept of Trial Networks, which refers to fully configurable, manageable and controlled end-to-end networks, composed of both digital and physical nodes. The 6G-SANDBOX Trial Networks incorporate infrastructures distributed in EU (namely in Malaga, Athens, Berlin and Oulu) and offer to third parties (including experimenters from open calls) automated experimentation capabilities through a rich and extensible toolbox. Meant to create tangible and long-term impact, the 6G KPIs and KVIs that will be quantified with the facility, will be released to any interested party; while the set of developments and APIs that will be produced, will feed an open repository as an initial step to move the contributions and the lessons learned beyond the project boarders and define a European 6G library.

5G adv. and 6G aim to expand the set of supported verticals and provide enhanced capabilities beyond connectivity. 5G CAM vertical services are a broad range of services in and around vehicles, including both safety-related and other services enabled or supported by 5G. 5GS has been built as a modular architecture to support any vertical running on top in a vertical-agnostic manner. However, it is realized that certain verticals (like CAM) have specific and strict requirements. Although significant progress has been made in supporting verticals, the corresponding necessary configuration of the network and end-devices is a time-consuming manual process that requires tight coordination at technical and business levels across the verticals, the vendors, the network operator, and even the end-users. This hinders not only the greater adoption of 5GS but also the uptake of novel CAM UCs and the modernization of existing ones that require a tighter integration with the underlying network. The main objective of ENVELOPE is to advance and open up the reference 5G adv. architecture, and also to transform it into a vertical-oriented with the necessary interfaces tailored to the CAM UCs that i) expose network capabilities to verticals, ii) provide vertical-information to the network; iii) enable verticals to dynamically request and modify certain network aspects in an open, transparent and easy to use, semi-automated way. ENVELOPE aims to deliver 3 large-scale B5G trial sites in Italy, Netherlands and Greece for CAM services and beyond, implementing functionalities tailored to the CAM services and advanced exposure capabilities. Although focused on the CAM vertical, the resulting developments will be reusable by any vertical. The ENVELOPE architecture will serve as an envelope that can cover, accommodate and support any type of vertical services. The applicability of ENVELOPE capabilities will be demonstrated via the project CAM UCs and via at least 9 open call projects.

iTrust6G aims at designing and implementing a network architecture implementing the zero-trust principles to increase the trustworthiness of 6G networks at several levels: AI/ML algorithm exploited for threat handling, asset compliance, explainable security policies and asset observability. The prioject aims to improve the accuracy and the efficiency of the (i) methodologies used for trust determination (e.g. time to share cyber-threat intelligence, duration of the vulnerability assessment procedure, number of the assurance conformity check), (ii) the performance of the security procedures involved (e.g. number of classes of monitored resources, mean time-to-detection of threat, mean time-to-reaction), and (iii) the induced overhead over network resources exploitation (e.g. performance overhead due to the programmability models).

6G networks, currently only existing as concepts, are envisioned as portals to a fully digitized society, where the physical and virtual world are blended via boundless Extended Reality (XR), and also as an enabler for the Digital and Green transformation of the European Industries. To support this vision, the network capacity must be increased at least by an order of magnitude, while infrastructures must be transformed into a very dense continuum. Thus, academia and industry have shifted their attention to the investigation of a new generation of Smart Networks and infrastructures. It is clear that to win this race towards shaping the next-generation communication ecosystem, a new generation of testbed infrastructures and breakthrough research and technology development is needed needed, as well as a new generation of testbeds to support future research initiative. To this end, 6G-BRICKS aims to deliver a new 6G facility, building on the baseline of mature ICT-52 platforms, that bring breakthrough cell-free and RIS technologies that have shown promise for beyond 5G networks. Moreover, novel unified control paradigms based on Explainable AI and Machine Reasoning are explored. All enablers will be delivered in the form of reusable components with open APIs, termed “bricks“. Finally, initial integrations with O-RAN are performed, aiming for the future-proofing and interoperability of 6G-BRICKS outcomes.