Four EU projects target 6G power efficiency
Four major 6G projects are launching in January 2025 targeting power efficiency in next generation telecoms networks.
The projects include energy harvesting to power AI sensors as well as trials of energy-efficient 6G network technologies.
Funded through the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), the projects have a total budget of €39.6m to tackle critical challenges in sustainability, resilience, collaboration, and human-centric innovation. These are part of 16 projects with a funding of €127m in the latest round of two-year projects starting in 2025.
The four projects (SUSTAIN-6G, 6G VERSUS, AMBIENT 6G, and SNS-CO OP) address sustainability, resilience, human-centric design, and collaboration.
“These projects reflect Europe’s commitment to advancing not just technology but also the societal and environmental priorities that come with it. By funding projects that combine innovation with responsibility, we are shaping a 6G future that benefits everyone,” says professor Ari Pouttu from the University of Oulu. He is 6G Flagship’s Vice Director and chairperson of the Expert Advisory Group of Networld Europe.
The €8m AMBIENT project aims to boost sustainable IoT systems where billions of battery-powered connected devices bring environmental challenges and high maintenance costs. To manage this, the project is set to develop intelligent energy-neutral devices (ENDs) and a supporting 6G network infrastructure.
This project focuses on designing, prototyping, and validating hardware and software for ultra-low-power 6G networks. Innovations include energy harvesting, wireless power transfer, intelligent resource management, and on-device machine learning without the need for batteries. This will use 3GPP ambient IoT standardisation activities, ensuring the project’s breakthroughs set the foundation for a sustainable IoT ecosystem to establish standards that will drive the next generation of IoT connectivity.
The €13m SUSTAIN project will focus on designing energy-efficient networks to minimise environmental impact and developing advanced ways to reduce waste. At the same time, it seeks to promote equitable access to 6G technologies, ensuring that connectivity benefits are distributed inclusively across society.
The VERSUS project has €14.5m to fund large-scale trials and pilots in six platforms across Europe to explore sustainable solutions in five environmentally-conscious vertical industries. The project introduces a novel methodology with Vertical Apps (V-Apps), Network Apps (N-Apps), and AI-assisted Apps (AI-Apps). This framework optimises the data and control planes of 6G systems.
The SNS-CO OP Smart Networks and Services Cooperation project focuses on collaboration, within Europe and globally, with partnerships between research institutions, industries, and policymakers to keep Europe at the forefront of 6G development. There are two international collaborative projects in this call for projects.
The MIRAI project with Japan aims to develop reliable and robust AI-native wireless communication systems with virtualized and potentially disaggregated radio access networks (RANs), while The ARROW project with South Korea looks to drive interoperability between devices and networks.
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
