6G SMART project:
6G Self-organising and Managing Open Radio Access Network (2024/2027)
6G SMART project
6G Self-organising and Managing Open Radio Access Network (2024/2027)
The challenge
Although 6G promises significant network performance improvements, the growing complexity of mobile networks continues to present challenges for its optimisation. Machine Learning (ML) techniques have been shown to be effective in optimising specific aspects of network performance. However, multiple aspects of it need to be optimised simultaneously. Proper coordination is required in order to avoid conflicting decisions to impact network performance in an undesirable way.
The project
The 6G SMART project provides an effective response to the challenge. The work is organised in 3 parts:
- Development of individual ML algorithms to achieve self-configuration, self-optimisation and self-healing capabilities
- Integration of the ML algorithms in a ML orchestrator designed to manage and resolve conflicting decisions among the various models
- Real-world testing of the algorithms within an O-RAN environment in two different scenarios: telecommunication and future smart factories
Our role
Future Connections contributes to various aspects of the projects, to include project management, preparation of demonstrators and testbed, as well as demonstration and dissemination of the project results. In particular, it will lead the design and development of the O-RAN self-configuration algorithms based on SoTA machine learning models. The objective is to obtain an optimal balance between energy consumption, resource usage and network performance in order to meet expected service levels at minimal costs and energy consumption.
The funding
Funded by the European Union and managed by Celtic-Next Eureka Cluster, the 6G SMART project started in November 2024 and is due to end in December 2027. The pan-European team of participants includes the University of Surrey, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Future Connections, the University of Jaen, Celfinet, Allbesmart, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP/CISTER), Instituto Politecnico de Castelo Branco, Odine Solutions and Turkcell.
