Open6GHub+

Motivation

Germany wants to achieve technological sovereignty in the international 6G competition and at the same time make critical infrastructures more resilient and digital systems more trustworthy. Open6GHub+ closes the gap between excellent basic research and its economic and social benefits by transferring research results into industry, standards and open test environments in a targeted manner. Close cooperation with industry, start-ups, SMEs and public stakeholders is intended to ensure the sustainable transfer of innovations into practice.

Project goals

The main objective is to transfer the findings from the predecessor project Open6GHub into market-ready technologies, with a particular focus on the integration of artificial intelligence into all levels of the 6G ecosystem. In parallel, a new type of 6G smart radio modem developed in Europe is being realized that meets high security and trust requirements for both ground-based networks and non-terrestrial platforms (NTN). Further objectives include the creation of 3D networks, the development of AI-supported digital twins for networks and production facilities, the investigation of electromagnetic exposure and the demonstration of practical solutions in the areas of Industry 4.0, health, agriculture and mobility.

Implementation

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and will run from the beginning of 2026 to the end of 2029, with DFKI, FAU, Fraunhofer FOKUS, KIT, TU Darmstadt, RPTU, University of Bremen and University of Stuttgart working in partnership on the individual subtasks. In a mission-oriented approach, clear work packages are defined, ranging from the expansion of the existing research infrastructure into a national transfer hub to the development of AI ops, digital twins and positioning algorithms through to field tests of the smart radio modem. Regular steering and review meetings, open test labs and close feedback with industry partners ensure on-time implementation, adherence to the budget and the achievement of quality and innovation targets.

ITIV participation

ITIV is involved in the development of real-time Ethernet routing, low-latency data aggregation software for pre-processing, the realization of a standardized network interface for Open-RAN and hardware-software-partitioned signal processing solutions. The institute is also involved in supporting the Open6G radio modem test platform.