6G-BRICKS
Building Reusable testbed Infrastructures for validating Cloud-to-
device breaKthrough technologieS
(01/2023 – 12/2025)
Aim: The development of a trusted, agile and evolvable 6G Experimentation Facility that will integrate breakthrough 6G technologies.
6G-BRICKS aims to deliver a new 6G facility, building on the baseline of mature ICT-52 platforms, that bring breakthrough Cell-Free (CF) and RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces) 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.
The main objectives of the project are:
- To deliver an evolvable 6G experimentation facility in Greece that will integrate breakthrough 6G technologies and federate two testbeds (one in France and one in Belgium) under a common set of experimentation tools.
- To validate and showcase advanced use cases in holographic communication, metaverse and digital twinning, showcasing the benefits of 6G breakthrough technologies and architecture. In particular, the project will demonstrate the technological feasibility of “better than 5G” KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in terms of capacity, reliability, location accuracy and energy efficiency and will validate a set of KVIs (Key Value Indicators) jointly defined with 4 ICT-52 baseline projects (MARSAL, REINDEER, RISE-6G, HEXA-X).
- To support disaggregated and programmable Software-Defined Infrastructures (SDIs), adopting virtualisation, softwarisation and O-RAN compliant interfaces to promote modularity and reusability.
- Offer a fully decentralised management plane, supporting zero-touch orchestration of computer and communication resources based on Explainable AI.
- Offer a Compute Continuum abstraction framework supporting a disaggregated wireless X-Ηaul.
- Deliver breakthrough technologies towards a 6G RAN via Distributed Cell-Free and RIS.
- Provide a secure and trusted Experimentation Facility for multiple concurrent tenants and experimentation platforms.
- Maximise the impact created by the project through wide means of dissemination, communication, standardisation and exploitation activities.
6G-BRICKS General Architecture
This project has received funding from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) under the EU’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under GA No 101096954. |