The sixth generation (6G) of mobile communications, planned around 2030, is expected to support innovative applications with requirements not met with today’s technologies, such as massive-scale communications (within IoT), the Internet of senses, holographic communications, massive digital twinning and Extreme Reality, fully autonomous driving, and flying networks, considering use cases in smart cities, smart home and factories (e.g. ultra-high precision 3D positioning).
TERRAMETA project will approach the development of these technologies and demonstrate the feasibility of Terahertz (THz) Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) assisted ultra-high data rate wireless communications networks. Novel high-performance hardware including the THz RIS and THz transmitter/receiver will be developed and advanced network analysis/optimization techniques will be developed using these real THz components.
The project has 13 partners: INESC TEC (Coordinator), University of Athens, University of Hertfordshire, University of Oulu, Intracom Telecom, CEA Leti, University of Luxembourg, Dell Technologies, Institute for Communications Technology at Technische Universität Braunschweig, ACST GmbH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, BT telecom UK, and Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT).
IT team (Antennas and Propagation Groups, from IT Lisbon and IT Leiria) will lead the project work package dedicated to Technology Evaluation, and THz Components Design, in close collaboration with all the partners involved. Within this work package, IT will be responsible for the design, modeling, and synthesis of the RIS element using different reconfigurable technologies. Moreover, IT will be in close collaboration with CEA Leti's partner in the design of Reflective and Transmissive RIS. Finally, IT will have an active role in setting the requirements for the defined scenarios and use cases.
TERRAMETA starts in 2023, for three years, funded with €6.3 million by the European Commission. Such sponsorship will put this project leader in the research undertaken in the field of 6G technologies.
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