OPE2 – Experiments and testbeds for 5G/6G networks
Friday, 6 June 2025, 9:00-10:30, room 0.B
Session Chair: Didier Bourse (Nokia, FR)
Maritime Multi-Hop Communication over 5G Networks: a Maritime Testbed Implementation and Evaluation
Seppo Horsmanheimo, Lotta Tuomimäki and Andrea Gentili (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland); Matias Varonen and Sami Ruponen (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland); Kimmo Ahola (VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Finland); Johan Scholliers (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland); Jose Costa-Requena (Aalto University, Finland & CUMUCORE OY, Finland); Mika Skarp (Cumucore OY, Finland); Marko Ojennus, Atro Lehtinen, Juha Karppinen and Lasse Nykänen (Indagon, Finland); Andrea Castelli (Brainstorm Multimedia, Spain); Daniel Larrosa (Brainstorm, Spain); Ilba Grillo, Marc Moisand and Daniel Hakansson (Airbus DS GmbH, Germany)
The maritime sector is undergoing a transformation driven by the ambition to make the ecosystem more sustainable and cost-efficient. New 5G features such as 5G Mobile Integrated Access and Backhaul (mIAB), Public Network (PN) – Non-Public Network (NPN) interaction, and Terrestrial Network (TN) – Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) connectivity open opportunities to extend 5G coverage and enhance capacity further away from the coastline. This paper describes the third stage of our multi-hop 5G testbed developed in the 5G-ROUTES project. The testbed utilizes two private and two public 5G networks complemented with a OneWeb satellite connection to support cross-border scenarios. A 2-phase validation process was used to ensure sufficient Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6-7 for maritime trials. The trials demonstrated a successful deployment of a mobile 5G multi-hop system in a maritime environment with the existing 5G technology. We successfully extended 5G coverage and capacity at sea by around 9 km without special network configurations, high transmission powers, or extreme antenna heights.
Addressing 3D Digital Twin in XR Remote Fab Lab over Sliced 5G Networks
Kenichi Komatsu, Antti Pauanne and Tuomo Hänninen (University of Oulu, Finland); Juha Kela and Tapani Rantakokko (Finwe Ltd., Finland); Esa Piri (Kaitotek Oy, Finland); Jarmo Prokkola (KaitotekOy, Finland); Paulo Marques (Allbesmart Lda, Portugal); Tiago Alves (Allbesmart, Lda, Portugal); Jussi P Haapola (Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland); Ari T. Pouttu (Centre for Wireless Communications University of Oulu, Finland)
This paper presents a pioneering approach to developing remote Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) using extended reality (XR) and 3D digital twins, enabled by cutting-edge advancements in private 5G networks. These XR Fab Labs enable multi-user remote collaboration and real-time control of R&D and manufacturing processes. Taking advantage of 3D digital twins and XR technologies, users can interact, review, and manipulate 3D models in a virtual space. The integration of ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) and network slicing within an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN)-based private 5G framework provides robust low-latency connectivity. An operational demonstration compared eMBB and URLLC slices under congestion, while a user Quality of Experience (QoE) survey revealed high usability and minimal perceived latency. This approach confirms the feasibility of integrating XR-based digital twins with 5G slicing capability for remote design and manufacturing in cyber-physical spaces.
The Experimentation-as-a-Service Approach in the ENVELOPE Project
Matteo Zattoni, Edoardo Bonetto and Daniele Brevi (Fondazione LINKS, Italy); Ramon S. Schwartz (TNO, The Netherlands); Harilaos Koumaras and Gerasimos Papanikolaou-Ntais (NCSR Demokritos, Greece); Foteini Setaki (Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, Greece); Elvina Gindullina and Davide Montagno Bozzone (HPE, Italy); Nicola di Pietro (Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Italy); Gabriele Scivoletto and Giacomo Bernini (Nextworks, Italy); Marco Bazzani (Teoresi S.p.A, Italy); Valeria Proietti (Teoresi S.p.A., Italy); Konstantinos V. Katsaros (Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), Greece); Pavlos Basaras (Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Greece)
This paper provides an overview of the approach adopted in the ENVELOPE project to deliver experimentation capabilities as a service for end users. The ENVELOPE platform is designed to facilitate the experimentation of Connected and Automated Mobility applications, by leveraging innovative features offered by Beyond 5G networks. This is achieved through a flexible user portal that enables experimenters to configure, launch, and monitor their experiments. Additionally, the ENVELOPE platform provides experimenters’ applications with easy-to-use interfaces, namely the ENVELOPE APIs, for interacting with the network and simplifying its configuration. Finally, a description of the trial sites is presented to illustrate their characteristics and experimentation capabilities. The use cases to be showcased in the project are also introduced.
Over the Air Computation for Distributed Power Control Using SDR Testbed
Anastasios Grammenos (Cognitive Innovations, Greece); Christos Tsakos and Fotis Foukalas (University of Thessaly, Greece)
Interference management is a critical challenge in future wireless networks, requiring scalable solutions beyond centralzed approaches. In this work, we propose and experimentally validate an over-the-air computation framework for distributed power control on a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) testbed. Using the graph neural networks (GNNs) paradigm, our approach embeds message-passing operations within standard 3GPP Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) to efficiently exchange Neural Network Information (NNI) along with known channel state information (CSI). By aggregating signals directly in the wireless medium, the communication overhead related to message passing is reduced, while the inherent synchronization capabilities of SSBs ensure precise timing and coordination. Experimental results show that the resulting power-control policy delivers throughput gains, underscoring its practical utility for 6G networks and subnetworks.
Wi-Fi 6 Cross-Technology Interference Detection and Mitigation by OFDMA: an Experimental Study
Thijs Havinga (Ghent University – Imec, Belgium); Xianjun Jiao (Imec, Belgium); Wei Liu (University Ghent – imec, Belgium); Baiheng Chen (Ghent University, Belgium); Adnan Shahid (Gent University – Imec, Belgium); Ingrid Moerman (Ghent University – IMEC, Belgium)
Cross-Technology Interference (CTI) poses challenges for the performance and robustness of wireless networks. There are opportunities for better cooperation if the spectral occupation and technology of the interference can be detected. Namely, this information can help the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) scheduler in IEEE 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) to efficiently allocate resources to multiple users in the frequency domain. This work shows that a single Channel State Information (CSI) snapshot, which is used for packet demodulation in the receiver, is enough to detect and classify the type of CTI on low-cost Wi-Fi 6 hardware. We show the classification accuracy of a small Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for different Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) with simulated data, as well as using a wired and over-the-air test with a professional wireless connectivity tester, while running the inference on the low-cost device. Furthermore, we use openwifi, a full-stack Wi-Fi transceiver running on software-defined radio (SDR) available in the w-iLab.t testbed, as Access Point (AP) to implement a CTI-aware multi-user OFDMA scheduler when the clients send CTI detection feedback to the AP. We show experimentally that it can fully mitigate the 35% throughput loss caused by CTI when the AP applies the appropriate scheduling.
