6G-MUSICAL is a ground-breaking project that merges radio sensing and communication technologies to create new paradigms in Radio Frequency (RF) communication.
The project aims to equip edge infrastructure nodes of 6G with integrated RF/radar-based radio-sensing elements that co-work with communication components. This enables localisation, object tracking and 3D imaging, with cm-level precision and resolution.
As such, the project will investigate new spectrally and energy-efficient system architectures and signals, to facilitate high-rate communication across multi-frequency bands integrated with accurate sensing and localisation.
The domain of wireless communications has emerged as the most dynamic sector in radio over the past several decades. With the deployment of five generations of cellular systems, people worldwide have been bestowed with the convenience of accessing an extensive spectrum of communication services. Despite the deployment of sensors, the network has consistently functioned merely as a communication conduit. Its primary purpose has been to transmit the data gathered by external sensors to a fusion centre or an actuator.
Another radio technology that has been around since World War II is radar technology. Despite sharing significant commonalities with the physical layer of wireless communications, these two technologies have progressed in isolation. In recent years, the emergence of research on the coexistence of radio sensing and communication has opened doors for future systems that inherently possess both functionalities. The explosive growth of data traffic and the need for high-resolution localization sensors provided the impetus for this proposal. Apart from the cost, size reduction, and improved spectrum efficiency, integrating the two technologies brings further benefits. Namely, the communication domain complements the sensing and localization domain information to enable the formation of higher-resolution scene imagery by effectively sharing the available resources in time, frequency, and space. The main motivation behind the 6G-MUSICAL proposal is the integration of these two isolated technologies and their inclusion in the definition of the future 6G network.
6G-MUSICAL is aligned with the EC programs, proposing new technologies to enable an integrated network with communication and sensing functionalities. As a project focusing on the pre-standardisation of 6G-MUSICAL may get inputs from ongoing projects.
The project is organized in three phases.
Phase 1 Basic Requirements, analysis, use cases, methodologies, and design
During Phase 1, the focus is on validating the 6G KPIs and KVIs by conducting a detailed analysis of the use cases, developing evaluation, testing, and verification methodologies, and benchmarking the results. The work will also involve extending assets from previous projects and designing 6G-MUSICAL's architectural elements, including frameworks and interfaces. While Phase 1 has already commenced and is integrated into the project's concept, the analysis and design will continue until M22 to ensure that any new requirements that may arise due to the validation during Phase 3 are implemented as improvements in Testing Cycle 2.
Phase 2 System Development
6G-MUSICAL will develop its components, which involve signal processing, synchronisation mechanisms, and RF and optical subsystems, in various multi-stakeholder scenarios across different domains.
Phase 3 System integration, validation in lab, & impact maximisation
The last phase focuses on conducting iterative PoCs for three representative use cases from two domains in lab settings, which will progress the system to TRL4. The PoCs will be executed in two consecutive and iterative testing cycles to ensure replicability, portability, and HW independence of the 6G-MUSICAL solution. During Testing Cycle 1, each PoC will be tested on one testbed, followed by at least one other during Testing Cycle 2. Iteration is necessary to incorporate potential feedback improvements into all architectural elements of the system and to perform regression testing to ensure that baseline target KPIs and KVIs are achieved.
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