Open-VERSO is born, the Cervera Network of Excellence led by Vicomtech to accelerate the evolution of next generation 5G and beyond mobile communication networks

Open-VERSO, the National Network of Excellence in 5G and future technologies starts to address the design of an architecture of a comprehensive 5G network, upgradeable to 6G technologies and aimed at creating a federated ecosystem that serves as a means of knowledge transfer to the national industrial fabric.

Vicomtech leads this network of excellence in which i2CAT and Gradiant also participate, three leading partners with extensive experience in 5G nationwide. The network was born with the aim of developing the deployment architecture of new solutions for 5G and beyond networks, evaluating use cases, integrating as a federated service infrastructure through RedIRIS and cooperating with other innovation projects related to 5G technologies nationwide. and international.

All this will be done with a clear vocation to transfer technology and knowledge to companies that will play a key role in the development of industries from multiple sectors that will benefit from the set of 5G technologies, based on the advantages offered by these innovative technologies.

An innovative concept at the service of companies and society

Open-VERSO will design and develop a scalable architecture by evolving a set of cross-cutting technologies that will enable early prototyping and implementation of advanced concepts not commercially available. For example, the series of technologies that will be enabled in the project will be related to artificial intelligence, advanced management of 5G networks and the evolution of technologies of the standards on which they are based.

In a service-oriented network such as 5G, it is essential to provide differentiated resources to each of the sectors in which the technology will impact. Open-VERSO contemplates carrying out proofs of concept and developing prototypes that will be validated using visually appealing and functional applications. For this reason, an important part of the proposed methodology consists of identifying and evaluating relevant indicators for different use cases that are representative enough to serve as a seed for future technology transfers of the group. Among other use cases, and by way of example, Open-VERSO addresses fundamental aspects related to the evolution of traditional mobile network infrastructures to fully virtualized “end-to-end” infrastructures that will include radio access technologies themselves in the future. In this context of "virtualization" of radio technologies, Open-VERSO will place special emphasis on the applicability of these technologies to sectors such as TV and digital radio broadcasting or "5G-Broadcast" where their integration into a common 5G network.

 They will potentially enable the broadcast of TV content not only to conventional televisions but also to smartphones in a much more efficient way using the same network infrastructure. Other technologies that will be addressed in Open-VERSO are those aimed at improving the use of spectral resources, through Artificial Intelligence techniques for radio spectrum management or through full-duplex in-band technologies that allow transmission and reception. Simultaneous information on the same frequency band.

The network will therefore be highly market-oriented, at the service of companies that are called to accelerate digitization in various sectors with applicability of 5G and future technologies, forming part of a true economic and social revolution. In addition, it will be an important boost for the 5G ecosystem in the scientific-technological field at the national level

Other fundamental aspects that have been very much taken into account since the conceptualization of the grouping are the economic ones and those related to sustainability. Open-VERSO proposes the federation of infrastructures through RedIRIS as a key aspect that will allow sharing knowledge and material resources, thus increasing the group's individual and collective capacities.

A firm commitment to collaboration and R&D at the national level

Open-VERSO is a network of excellence financed by the Cervera Program for Technological Centers, the national commitment to develop market-oriented research promoted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI).

With an investment of € 2.3M by the Program, the partners face the challenge of materializing an intense collaboration with very ambitious goals. The Open-VERSO network of excellence will accelerate the development of 5G and future technologies together with its various sectoral applications, with the ultimate goal of transferring them to the driving companies that will themselves be architects of the revolution that is already being experienced at the connectivity level and digitization.

Javier Morgade, project coordinator at Vicomtech highlights “Open-VERSO is a key project for the technology centers involved. The project will provide the resources and bases that will allow the members of the group to strategically align with similar international initiatives. Among other aspects, Open-VERSO is especially oriented to the development of a set of key technologies in the context of the evolution of current and future 5G networks that will be key to the early conception of innovative use cases in which technological validation and commercial end-to-end connectivity will be essential ”

Daniel Camps, director of the Mobile Wireless Internet area at i2CAT, points out that “5G and beyond technologies will play a fundamental role in the digital transformation of the economy and society. In this context, the Open-VERSO project will create a federated experimentation platform in 5G and beyond 5G networks that will improve the competitiveness of the Spanish academic and industrial sector, allowing the validation of new technologies such as the virtualization of the radio network, or the application from Artificial Intelligence techniques to the management of mobile networks ".

Luis Pérez Roca, director of Gradiant's Advanced Communications area, explains that “Open-VERSO, in addition to focusing on important key challenges for the evolution of mobile networks, developing radio and network technologies that will increase their flexibility and improve their efficiency, It will exploit the synergies between three Centers with extensive experience and strong technological complementarity in this area to become an important actor in the 5G ecosystem and a dynamic agent for different vertical industries. In this sense, Open-VERSO seeks complicity with the national industrial fabric to increase its competitiveness and contribute to its internationalization, both by generating technologies and creating an advanced environment for development and experimentation that facilitate companies to create new innovative products and applications of high value for society ”.