Artificial Intelligence redesigns the 6G networks of the future: the european 6G-OPTICON project launched with the contribution of Sant’Anna School
The project, funded by the European Commission, aims to develop new AI techniques to make 6G networks more autonomous, efficient, secure, and sustainable. Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies will play a leading role through the research group led by Daniel Casini (TeCIP Institute)
Making future 6G networks smarter, safer, more sustainable, and capable of making autonomous decisions in real time: this is the challenge at the heart of 6G-OPTICON, the new European project funded under Horizon Europe, which aims to revolutionize the management of telecommunications infrastructures through the integration of advanced artificial intelligence models and innovative network orchestration techniques.
6G-OPTICON (6G Optimization and Constrained Intelligence for End-to-End Network Operations Across Heterogeneous Segments) brings together an international consortium of universities, research centres, major telecommunications companies, and innovative SMEs from six European countries. Among the project partners is the Telecommunications, Computer Engineering and Photonics Institute (TeCIP) of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, whose research group led by Daniel Casini (Real-Time Systems Laboratory – ReTiS Lab) will contribute to the development of energy-efficient AI solutions for next-generation mobile networks.
New Artificial Intelligence Techniques Applied to Communication Networks
6G networks will be characterized by unprecedented complexity, driven by the growing integration of network infrastructures, cloud and edge computing services, intelligent applications, and stringent requirements in terms of performance, security, and energy efficiency. To address these challenges, 6G-OPTICON will develop an open and modular platform capable of automatically and intelligently coordinating resources and services distributed across radio networks, transport networks, the core network, and edge infrastructures.
A distinctive aspect of the project concerns the use of new “constraint-aware” artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques, capable of directly incorporating requirements such as latency, energy consumption, quality of service, and security into the models. This approach will allow networks to dynamically adapt to operating conditions while ensuring compliance with quality-of-service objectives and more efficient use of the available resources.
The Role of the Sant’Anna School
Within the European consortium, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna will play a leading role in the development of energy-efficient artificial intelligence techniques. In particular, the group coordinated by Daniel Casini will coordinate activities devoted to the design and lifecycle management of AI models capable of adapting to different hardware platforms, optimizing the trade-off between performance, energy consumption, and use of computing resources. Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna is also responsible for the thematic area “Energy-aware AI design and scheduling”, one of the project’s central scientific directions.
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna will also contribute to the validation of the developed technologies by making available its experimental site in Pisa, which will be part of the international network of infrastructures distributed across Italy, Greece, Spain, and Slovenia and used to test the project solutions in realistic application scenarios.
The project proposal received the maximum score in the European Commission evaluation, achieving 15 points out of 15. The evaluators particularly highlighted the high level of scientific innovation, the methodological soundness, and the potential impact of the proposed solutions on the evolution of communication networks towards the future 6G generation.
