Concept & Methodology

6G is expected to emerge as key enabler for the intelligent digital society of 2030 and beyond, providing superior performance via ground-breaking access technologies, such as joint communication and sensing, cell-free, Radio Intelligent Surfaces, and ubiquitous wireless intelligence. Most importantly, 6G is expected to trigger a total rethink of network architecture design, which builds on the key idea of new stakeholders entering into the value chain of future networks.

6G-XCEL project seeks to provide a framework and tools for research and development of decentralized AI methods for network control extending across radio and optical networks and network domains, which we refer to as a ‘multi-network’ approach. In particular, it will build on the O-RAN architecture approach as an open source platform supporting multi-party applications (xApps/rApps) in a RIC. The focus is to study the practical use of such controls and their potential for 6G networks.

As such, the solutions the problems involved are beyond the scope of this project and a full architecture would be left to standards, building on 6G-XCEL research. Our ambition is to create this framework that would enable the teams involved in 6G-XCEL and the wider EU and US communities in which they are involved, to accelerate progress on this topic. This will be done by both creating x/rApps that support AI workflows as well as native extensions to the RICs.