Message from the General Co-Chairs
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this joint edition of the 30th European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC2021) and of the 3rd 6G Summit. We are extremely happy to join forces with the 6G Summit held in Finland in 2019 and 2020 to boost the 6G dimension of European Research and Innovation. Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, this conference, initially planned to be held in Porto, Portugal, will now be run totally virtually.
This edition represents a landmark in the history of the conference. When its predecessor, the “Mobile Summit” conference, was launched 30 years ago, the first European GSM network was not even deployed and most optimistic market studies predicted about 40 million users in Europe. Three decades later, we have more active mobile devices in the world than the number of inhabitants on the planet. The mobile revolution has penetrated each and every domain of economic and social activities and each generation has brought new innovation: data with 3G, broadband internet with 4G, and now the object connectivity with 5G, with important prospects to accelerate the digitisation of multiple business processes in vertical industry.
For each of these innovations, Europe has been able to count on world-class R&D actors from industry, universities and research centres. But there is no room for complacency! With a multiplicity of 6G initiatives being now launched around the world, Europe needs to be ready to tackle the new challenge, to seize the opportunity to consolidate its leadership with a competitive, green and sovereign capability in this strategic sector and to answer the call of the ambitious digital and green policy agenda of this Commission.
In the context of the 2021-27 Framework programme, the priority is hence to reinforce Europe’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy through excellence in R&D&I and strategic investments addressing identified market failures, whilst continuing to promote 5G lead markets across vertical sectors, aiming at creating a digital ecosystem in Europe. The focus extends beyond networking and spans the whole value chain from components and devices to the Cloud, AI and Cybersecurity. In the same way, it extends beyond technology into applications and user experience, aiming at economic and societal impact.
In order to achieve this priority, the Commission adopted a two-pronged approach: launching a 6G flagship whilst promoting 5G deployment, towards the goal of 5G everywhere. This will be done through a strategic European partnership on Smart Networks and Services (SNS) supported by 900 million € from the Horizon Europe programme and leveraging a similar investment from the private side. SNS will build upon the 700 million € of 5G PPP in Horizon 2020, including over 60 million € on beyond 5G, in eight projects addressing specific technologies and a 6G flagship project.
Besides implementing 6G research, the SNS partnership is planned to coordinate over 1 billion € of deployment actions under the CEF2-Digital programme, in particular on the cross-border 5G Corridors. This will be complemented by 5G national investments at Member States level under the umbrella of the Resilience and Recovery Fund, where about 150 billion € have been reserved for Digital investments.
By spanning the broad scope from 5G (moving towards deployment) to 6G (moving from vision to concepts and to technology enablers), this year’s joint EuCNC & 6G Summit will already reflect their duality.
This conference is finally an opportunity for EU-funded projects to showcase their substantive achievements, through compelling demonstrations, at the end of the Horizon 2020 programme, with a continued focus on 5G trials and on Beyond 5G, and to confirm the excellence of European research and innovation in communication technologies.
We wish you a very fruitful and enjoyable online conference.
Pearse O’Donohue & Miguel Almeida
Conference General Co-Chairs
Message from the Technical Programme Committee Chairs
The 2021 Joint EuCNC & 6G Summit, initiated this year, builds on putting together two successful conferences in the area of telecommunications: EuCNC, in its 30th edition of a series, supported by the European Commission, and the 6G Summit, in its 3rd edition, originated from the 6G Flagship programme in Finland, one of the very first in its area.
This conference was expected to take place in the beautiful city of Porto but, due the pandemic situation which is largely affecting international travels, we decided to realize it virtually.
The conference focuses on aspects of telecommunications ranging from 5G deployment and mobile IoT to 6G exploration and future communications systems and networks, including experimentation and testbeds, applications and services. It is carried out under the motto On the Road to 6G.
We received 215 paper submissions from 33 countries, not only from Europe, but also as from other regions, namely Asia/Pacific, USA, Middle East, Africa, Canada and Latin America. Each paper was reviewed by at least three qualified reviewers, with an overall acceptance rate of 50%. We also received proposals for organizing 22 Workshops, 10 Special Sessions and 9 Tutorials.
The conference occurs from 8th to 11th of June 2021. The first day is dedicated to Workshops and Tutorials. Starting formally on the 9th of June, the conference will consist of plenary sessions and parallel sessions. Plenary sessions will include keynote speeches by Michael Peeters, Manuel Ramalho Eanes, Roberto Verdone, and Petter Vetter, as well as discussion panels dedicated to the following themes: “6G and B5G prospects for vertical industry”, “Components and hardware on the road to 6G”, and “6G – from visions to system requirements”. The parallel sessions will be dedicated to paper presentations, special sessions and posters. The conference also offer also to participants a virtual exhibition, consisting of virtual booths and facilities for enabling the real-time interaction with
participants.
We thank all authors for submitting their manuscripts, as well as the track chairs and reviewers for their devotion to selecting high quality contributions. A special thanks goes to the European Commission, the conference supporter , IEEE, and the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU 2021. We also thank our patrons: NOS ® – Diamond Patron, Huawei ® – Platinum Patron, Nokia ® – Gold Patron, VIRGINIA DIODES ®, and Ericsson ® – Bronze Patron.
Finally, we would like to emphasize the hard work of the Local Organising Committee, and thank them for their enthusiasm even when we realized that this event could not be organized the way we all planned and expected.
We hope that you enjoy the 2021 Joint EuCNC & 6G Summit programme and consider contributing to the next year’s edition of the conference.
Manuel Ricardo
Technical Programme Committee Co-Chair
Ari Pouttu
Technical Programme Committee Co-Chair
Rui Campos
Technical Programme Committee Vice-Chair