The Enhanced Smart Networks for Everything (SN4E+) project is considered a continuation of the recently awarded SN4E (Smart Networks for Everything) project, which proposes the deployment of a research and experimentation environment for knowledge transfer between academia, industry and society.
The Enhanced Smart Networks for Everything (SN4E+) project aims to advance the infrastructure of the applicant groups, with a clear focus on enabling research in 5G advanced and 6G. In this sense, the objective is to build new capabilities on the SN4E infrastructure, recently approved in the previous call. Through the SN4E project, an evolution of the Smart Networks for Industry (SN4I) infrastructure towards new applications and new verticals was proposed, with a clear focus on the acquisition of network equipment, both real and emulation, compatible with the new 3GPP standards currently evolving towards 5G advanced. Indeed, thanks to SN4E, it will be possible to test new functionalities of the latest 5G and advanced 5G technology releases, such as URLLC and mMTC, millimeter wave, 5G-TSN communications, and QKD-based security. The goal of SN4E+ is the incorporation into SN4E of new technologies and services that build on the SN4E infrastructure and enable innovation in areas with clear applicability in terms of early 6G trends. Through SN4E, it has been possible to lay the foundations to enable research and experimentation in 5G/6G, on which SN4E+ aims to advance. SN4E+ proposes the integration of a test bench for IoT and IIoT applications through which research will be carried out in areas closely linked to the propagation and performance of communications in various environments, both physical (in particular Industry) and environmental in 6G, through the collection of data from the device and/or the network (through APIs along the lines of the recently announced GSMA Open Gateway) and the subsequent application of AI/ML techniques. On the other hand, the infrastructure will be completed with the acquisition of new tools for the modeling and evaluation of core and radio access networks. Finally, equipment will be acquired to advance in the securitization of the critical service represented by 6G communications, addressing security in the core and in the deployment of end-to-end services, using quantum key exchange technology and cryptographic processing of packets in the data plane at line speed.