The overall aim of NANCY is to introduce a secure and intelligent architecture for the beyond the fifth generation (B5G) wireless network. Leveraging AI and blockchain, NANCY enables secure and intelligent resource management, flexible networking, and orchestration. In this direction, novel architectures, namely point-to-point (P2P) connectivity for device-to-device connectivity, mesh networking, and relay-based communications, as well as protocols for medium access, mobility management, and resource allocation will be designed. These architectures and protocols will make the most by jointly optimizing the midhaul, and fronthaul. This is expected to enable truly distributed intelligence and transform the network to a low-power computer. Likewise, by following a holistic optimization approach and leveraging the developments in blockchain, NANCY aims at supporting E2E personalized, multi-tenant and perpetual protection.

The 5+ Bn km of currently installed data communications optical fibre cable provides an opportunity to create a globe-spanning network of fibre sensors, without laying any new fibres. These traverse the seas and oceans, where conventional sensors are practically non-extent, and major infrastructures, offering potential for smart structural health monitoring. ECSTATIC will develop novel interferometry and polarisation-based sensing approaches for vibration and acoustic fibre-optic sensing technologies. New possibilities will be defined for sensitivity, distance range and localization, offering a range of solutions for different use cases, while ensuring the coexistence of the sensing signal with live data traffic. A new compact photonic chip-based dual-microcomb engine will enable enhanced range, resolution, and bandwidth of distributed acoustic sensing together with fundamental new knowledge on the physics of physical stimuli in relation to state-of-polarisation sensing. Simultaneous interrogation of multiple transmitted comb lines in the microwave domain with multi-wavelength interferometry and novel state-of-polarisation millisecond field programmable gate array-based transceivers will be developed and characterised to improve the sensitivity, spatial resolution, and dynamic range of distributed fiber sensors. To address the limited data storage and processing capabilities of communication networks new digital signal processing algorithms based on edge devices and artificial intelligence/machine learning will be developed and used to extract information via data-compression techniques. Solutions will aim to minimise algorithm complexity while realising real-time sensing of events and network condition with high classification accuracy. These technologies and algorithms will be tested in real-world submarine, metropolitan and infrastructure networks to validate their potential for early warning of seismic events, predictive maintenance, and network integrity.

6G networks, currently only existing as concepts, are envisioned as portals to a fully digitized society, where the physical and virtual world are blended via boundless Extended Reality (XR), and also as an enabler for the Digital and Green transformation of the European Industries. To support this vision, the network capacity must be increased at least by an order of magnitude, while infrastructures must be transformed into a very dense continuum. Thus, academia and industry have shifted their attention to the investigation of a new generation of Smart Networks and infrastructures. It is clear that to win this race towards shaping the next-generation communication ecosystem, a new generation of testbed infrastructures and breakthrough research and technology development is needed needed, as well as a new generation of testbeds to support future research initiative. To this end, 6G-BRICKS aims to deliver a new 6G facility, building on the baseline of mature ICT-52 platforms, that bring breakthrough cell-free and RIS technologies that have shown promise for beyond 5G networks. Moreover, novel unified control paradigms based on Explainable AI and Machine Reasoning are explored. All enablers will be delivered in the form of reusable components with open APIs, termed “bricks“. Finally, initial integrations with O-RAN are performed, aiming for the future-proofing and interoperability of 6G-BRICKS outcomes.

5G-DRIVE will trial and validate the interoperability between EU & China 5G networks operating at 3.5 GHz bands for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and 3.5 & 5.9 GHz bands for V2X scenarios. The key objectives are to boost 5G harmonisation & R&I cooperation between EU & China through strong connected trials & research activities, with a committed mutual support from the China “5G Product R&D Large-scale Trial” project led by China Mobile. To achieve these objectives and to deliver the impact for early 5G adoption, 5G-DRIVE structures its main activities into three pillars. The first one will test and demonstrate the latest 5G key technologies in eMBB and V2X scenarios in pre-commercial 5G networks. 5G-DRIVE will run three extensive trials in Finland, Italy and UK. The Chinese project will run large-scale trials in five cities. These twinned trials aim to evaluate synergies and interoperability issues and provide recommendations for technology and spectrum harmonisation. The second one focuses on researching key innovations in network slicing, network virtualisation, 5G transport network, edge computing and New Radio features to fill gaps between standards and real-world deployment. The third one will push EU-China 5G collaboration at all levels thru extensive dissemination and exploitation actions. The project formed a strong team of mobile operators and industry, including a prominent car manufacturer, SMEs, research institutes and universities. This well-balanced consortium has the necessary skills with an established close cooperation with the Chinese consortium will provide first class expertise to achieve full interoperability of the 5G networks and V2X between the EU and China. 5G-DRIVE is ideally set to instill tremendous impact on the validation of standards and trigger the roll-out of real 5G networks and V2X innovative solutions driving new business opportunities and creating thereby new jobs and brand new business models.

YAKSHA aims at reinforcing EU-ASEAN cooperation & building partnerships in the cybersecurity domain by developing a solution tailored to specific user and national needs, leveraging EU Know-How and local expertise. YAKSHA will develop and introduce the innovative concept of honeypots-as-a-service which will greatly enhance the process of gathering threat intelligence. It will enhance cybersecurity readiness levels for end users, help prevent cyber-attacks, mitigate cyber risks and better govern the whole cybersecurity process. YAKSHA is ideally positioned to secure global manufacturing supply chains, given its planned focus on IoT Security. YAKSHA will develop innovative methods for malware detection, collection and analysis, as well as design a specialised ontology to be used for long-term storage and analysis of the information, and deploy standard information formats and interfaces to facilitate interoperability. The YAKSHA software solution will be validated in real-world pilot projects in both regions, focusing on Vietnam & Greece, but with plans to expand the deployments to other countries. The test cases will be represented by complex end-users with articulated cybersecurity risks and will allow the consortium to gather feedback to be used later to bring the solution to the market. YAKSHA will develop a comprehensive business plan for the transition of the solution and complementary services to TRL9, leveraging the very strong ASEAN partners that are members of the consortium - including governmental organisations and leading end-users communities and associations with regional scope. As part of this effort, YAKSHA will build a whole ecosystem of partners around its solutions. This will contribute to enhancing cybersecurity skills in Europe and creating new positions for cybersecurity specialists in ASEAN. Moreover, the direct access to the all-important ASEAN market provided to partners will positively impact the competitiveness of European security industry