The Telecommunications Technology Center of Catalonia (CTTC) is a non-profit research institution based in Castelldefels (Barcelona), resulting from a public initiative of the Regional Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya). CTTC’s research activities, both fundamental and applied, are organized into four research divisions: Communication Networks, Communication Systems, Communication Technologies, and Geomatics.
Since its creation in 2001, CTTC has participated in more than 160 projects funded by European, Spanish, or Catalan administrations, or by direct contracts with industry, in the fields of 5G communication systems, next-generation optical transport networks, embedded systems, software defined networking, satellite communications, positioning systems, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, smart grids, among others. CTTC also develops strategic internal research projects for the development of proof-of-concepts and experimental prototypes.
CTTC leads the UNITY-6G project and coordinates and steers the efforts of all partners towards sustainable, scalable, intelligent and integrated 6G networks. Within UNITY-6G, CTTC will contribute to the integrated network design which includes the development of new technologies and solutions for seamless interworking and interoperability between different heterogeneous network domains, such as terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. CTTC will also focus on the design and optimization of X-Haul networks, which are critical for connecting radio access networks to core networks, and on promoting the adoption of open and disaggregated network architectures, such as Open RAN, to enable more flexibility, scalability, and innovation in network design and operation.
Moreover, a set of proof of concepts from the UNITY-6G project will be implemented on the CTTC EXTREME and CASTLE experimental platforms. EXTREME is a multi-purpose fully reconfigurable testbed designed to validate 5G/6G/xG cloud/edge and networking services and infrastructure in close-to-real-world scenarios. Its design includes a full open-source ETSI NFV-compliant management and orchestration stack as well as an O-RAN certified stack. CASTLE enables testing, replay and development of different radio standards, directly from the cloud. It is also possible to transmit and receive waveforms of different standards over the air and process them locally or remotely.
CTTC’s participation in UNITY-6G is expected to stimulate technology transfer and the creation of intellectual property rights, which are at the heart of its mission. By participating UNITY-6G, CTTC staff will gain new knowledge to enhance the capabilities of an existing Beyond 5G platform. As a member of standardisation bodies such as ETSI, 3GPP, ITU-T, CTTC will actively participate in these standardisation forums. Furthermore, as a member of the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) and 6G Smart Networks and Services (JU-SNS), CTTC will exploit the results of the project for the 6G industry in Europe, to foster new collaborations and partnerships.
CTTC is represented by several experts, including Dr.Engin Zeydan who acts as project coordinator, Dr. Luis Blanco who acts as Scientific Coordinator, and Selva Via who supports the coordinators in project management duties.
The UNITY-6G project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 101192650. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This work has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).