5G-STARDUST landed in Valencia, Spain this week, where project partner Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT) co-organised the PIMRC 2024 in-event workshop “6G-NTN: architectures and technologies”, focused on the exchange of innovative ideas and insights to shape new research directions on enabling techniques for integration and flexible network operation of NTN in 6G, targeting both infrastructural and technological aspects.
Held on September 2, 2024, the full-day workshop – kicked off with a keynote delivered by Ana Perez-Neira, Director of 5G-STARDUST partner Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) – touched upon several innovative aspects and ideas in the networking field, revolving specifically on Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) and the concept of 3D infrastructure.
NTNs are becoming increasingly important for enabling new applications in the 6G network, offering coverage in areas underserved by traditional Terrestrial Networks (TNs). Unlike previous generations, where NTNs complemented TNs, 6G will fully integrate terrestrial and non-terrestrial communications, creating a unified, optimised infrastructure across air, space, and ground. The 3D infrastructure, within this context, presents new challenges due to NTNs’ unique characteristics, such as dynamic network topologies and power constraints, requiring novel solutions, including AI-based approaches.
The ultimate aim of the event was in fact to explore innovative ideas and research directions to address these challenges and enable seamless NTN integration in 6G, through a dense agenda spanning two technical sessions and keynotes.
5G-STARDUST partners’ role and takeaways
Beside co-organising, CNIT contributed to the discussion with a keynote entitled “The NTN (r)evolution”, held by representative and 5G-STARDUST partner Alessandro Guidotti, who also delivered, in the afternoon, a tutorial on 6G-NTN Architectures with Carla Amatetti of UNIBO. The first of the two sessions also saw a delegation from Berlin-based project partner Fraunhofer – including Marius Corici, Hauke Buhr, Hemant Zope and Manar Zaboub – presenting “An SDN-Based Solution for Mega-Constellation Routing”.
The event gathered an audience of 30 attendees, who actively participated in discussions throughout the day. The key takeaway from the workshop, as summarised by Guidotti, is that a native inclusion of the NTN component in 6G will contribute to the resilience, flexibility, and sustainability of the system enabling service improvement and market enlargement. However, to achieve a fully harmonised 3D TN-NTN system, both evolutionary and revolutionary technologies will need to be researched and developed.
About IEEE PIMRC
The Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) has become one of the two major conferences of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) in the field of wireless communications and networking. Originally founded in 1989 in London as a workshop and developed over the years to become a major international conference attracting the technical community from all regions and continents.