6G-PATH project
kick-off

The kick-off Meeting of the 6G-PATH project (‘6G Pilots and Trials Through Europe’) took place on January 30-31, 2024, assembling the consortium partners at OTE Headquarters, in Athens. This 36-month 6G Project is co-funded by SNS JU (Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking) and the EU. The project started on 1 January 2024.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros, Head of the Fixed Network R&D Programs Section, on behalf of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), the project’s Project Coordinator.

The meeting set the stage for the ambitious objectives of the 6G-PATH project, which intends to take a prominent role in the development and integration of new and improved tools and products from EU companies with advanced 5G and 6G tools, services and technologies, with a strong focus on four specific application domains: Health, Education, Smart Cities and Smart Farming. It will involve Telecommunications and Cloud Service Providers, large industrial partners, many European SMEs, and several Universities and Research Institutes.

About 6G-PATH

Goal

The 6G-PATH goal is to help foster the further development and integration of new and improved tools and products from EU companies with 5G/6G while measuring relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) and key value items (KVIs). To achieve this,

• 7 Beyond 5G/6G testbeds will be part of the project consortium, which will be used by 10 use cases spread across 4 key verticals: Health, Education, Smart Cities and Farming.
• A portion of the budget will be used for Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP), with plans to integrate 2 new Pilot Sites, 10 extensions of the testbeds with additional technologies, and 30 new use cases through Open Calls to involve the community further and obtain more metrics and outcomes.

Objectives

A total of 7 specific objectives have been set for the project:

1. Setup the 6G-PATH experiment and validation infrastructure and evolve it into B5G/6G experimental infrastructures and pre-normative testbeds.
2. Deliver and refine a transversal integration and experimentation platform.
3. Expand the user community and implement large-scale field trials with internal and external experiments through Open Calls.
4. Collect and refine requirements stemming from Stream B and verticals.
5. Devise leading-edge business models towards the commercialisation and exploitation of 6G-PATH use cases and technologies.
6. Disseminate and communicate results to a broad community of stakeholders while ensuring impact on standardisation efforts.

Create repositories for open knowledge transfer and supporting the subsequent phases of the Smart Networks and Services (SNS) programme.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 6G-PATH

HPE is participating in the definition of 6G-PATH’s mobile network architectural requirements, with a focus on core networking aspects. In addition, HPE is providing 6G-PATH with its commercial mobile core network to support the project’s piloting activities and vertical experiments. Further, HPE is contributing to 6G-PATH’s dissemination, communication, and standardisation activities.