There is a strong need for objective data about stability and performance of Mobile Broadband (MBB) networks, and for tools to rigorously and scientifically assess their performance. In particular, it is important to measure and understand the quality as experienced by the end user. Such information is very valuable for many parties including operators, regulators and policy makers, consumers and society at large, businesses whose services depend on MBB networks, researchers and innovators. MONROE proposes to design, build and operate an open, European-scale, and flexible platform with multi-homing capabilities to run experiments on operational 3G/4G Mobile Broadband networks. One of the main objectives of MONROE is to use the platform for the identification of key MBB performance parameters, thus enabling accurate, realistic and meaningful monitoring and assessment of the performance of MBB networks. MONROE also provides WIFI connectivity mimicking multi-homing in smartphones with both MBB and WiFi interfaces, to allow experimenting on different access technologies as well as explore new ways of combining them to increase performance and robustness. The users of the platform are in the core of the MONROE project. First, following the FIRE’s philosophy, MONROE offers a user-oriented closed-loop system design in which the experimental platform is open to external users, and where users are incorporated early on in the experimental design process. Second, MONROE will provide Experiments as a Service (EaaS), thus lowering the barrier for using the platform to external experimenters and users, by providing well-documented tools and adjustable, flexible, high-level scripts to execute experiments, collect results, and analyze data. Interoperability with existing FIRE and FP7 measurement platforms, jointly with the MONROE's effort to develop business and funding models, will guarantee sustainability and usefulness of the platform.

EMPOWER ambitions to accelerate the joint development between the EU and the US on advanced wireless platforms targeting the new connectivity frontiers beyond 5G. EMPOWER targets the creation of a joint EU-US advanced wireless ecosystem for (i) bridging the relevant EU-US Wireless communities and stakeholders, such as scientific researchers, platform engineers, standardization experts, regulators, and product incubators; and (ii) developing a strategic EU-US collaboration agenda and supporting its execution ahead of worldwide competition for beyond 5G connectivity standards. EMPOWER foresees twinning with the best researchers and practitioners involved in projects funded by USA, especially with entities participating in the PAWR programme (https://www.advancedwireless.org/). EMPOWER will provide instruments for inducing collaboration between ongoing and forthcoming 5G and beyond initiatives targeting at wireless networks experimentation on both ends of the Atlantic. Through the EMPOWER instruments we aim to create an efficient means for stimulating the circulation of ideas and people between European and similar American experimental wireless platform initiatives. We also aim at encouraging stronger collaboration between fundamental and experimental wireless researchers by making access to platform tools and data exchange simpler. EMPOWER instruments will also provide a wealth of information for global and regional standards and regulatory organizations (e.g. ITU-R, ETSI) and industry fora (e.g. NGMN). An important additional output of EMPOWER will be in the form of recommendations on technologies and experimentation methodologies for future wireless experimentation objectives. This will assist in providing coordination between EU (Horizon Europe) and US NSF programmes for future individual and joint calls.

Future wireless networks are envisioned to support novel applications that require similar performance as wired networks in terms of data rate (Tbps), ultra-low-latency (well below 1 ms), sensing (e.g., mm-level localization accuracy), and reliability (e.g., 1 in a billion transmission error). The current 5G approaches have a hard time keeping up with such envisioned applications. TIMES addresses this problem by combining novel radio channel propagation measurements and modeling approaches, spectrally efficient and reliable communications at Terahertz (THz) spectrum bands with intelligent mesh networking protocols and smart sensing and shaping of the propagation environment through reconfigurable meta-surfaces. While the fundamental technologies developed will be applicable to different beyond-5G scenarios, TIMES will focus on an industrial setting, since many of the envisioned applications in this complex scenario (e.g., cooperative robots, predictive maintenance, real-time closed-loop control) require concurrent high performance, reliability, and sensing capabilities. To tackle the challenge, TIMES extends the state-of-the-art on three fronts: 1) Propagation channel measurements and characterization in THz bands, including measurement and modeling of meta-surfaces and electromagnetic leakage in complex scenarios; 2) Developing technological enablers for reliable THz communications (e.g., smart beam management, ultra-massive MIMO, THz-tailored PHY and MAC design, meta-surfaces, and new mesh-based architecture); and 3) Implementation of a THz mesh network prototype, including design and fabrication of both active (transceivers) and passive (meta-surface) nodes, to validate selected technological enablers developed in TIMES.

The approach of the 5-Alive project will be to use an innovative mix of community and industrial support to produce the essential material and to perform an intensive communications programme. The project proposes to establish effective processes to capture, synopsise and present frequent news updates on the activities of the European 5G initiative and ensure their widespread dissemination. The project involves a number of key industrial players, who are active in lead roles in both the ETP and the Association, and are contributing manpower to the project activities at their own cost, to ensure the investment is shared between industry and the EC. Thus the funding model of this proposal is a true reflection of the stakeholder interests in and commitments to the European 5G-Infrastructure-PPP. The main 5-Alive project objectives are: • Produce an updated roadmap for the holistic network perspective (including 5G) via the NetWorld2020 ETP, • Actively promote and position the European 5G Initiatives as part of the leading global initiatives, • Stimulate the involvement of the European ICT community and consumer sectors as drivers of evolution, • Facilitate the 5G-Infrastructure-Association production of strategies for later phases of the 5G-PPP, • Conduct a first exercise on mapping the 5G-PPP KPIs to the research challenges to determine which topics will directly contribute to obtaining the foreseen infrastructure performance/feature improvements. The project will run for one year to boost the 5G activities in the short-term in advance of the kick-off of 5G project related activities and to position the 5G PPP initiative as “the” European initiative in the 5G domain at global level.