SUSTAIN-6G is a HORIZON-JU-SNS-2024-STREAM-B Smart Network and Services (SNS) Lighthouse project which will lead the way towards a holistic perspective of sustainability in the context of 6G. To this end, the project will address all three areas of sustainability (economic, environmental, societal), simultaneously for the two aspects of sustainability in 6G, sustainable 6G technology and 6G for sustainability in vertical scenarios, in an End-to-End (E2E) manner and considering the full lifecycle of assets.
It will be a hub to exchange and develop ideas, create innovation, and develop concepts and solutions by addressing gaps in technology and methodologies, and validate and evaluate sustainability impact through Proof-of-Concepts with implications of verticals. The project involves 24 partners and has a total budget of 14M€.
Broad consortium
24 partners from 10 different European countries.
Balanced contribution
Effort is evenly distributed among all partners.
Academic excellence
Participation of leading universities and a research institute.
Industrial strength
Involvement of major telecom operators and industrial players.
Strong SME participation
Innovative SMEs represent one third of the total effort.
Identify and understand sustainability needs and values
- Review, consolidate and define sustainability goals, values, indicators based on stakeholder requirements
Define methodologies for sustainability definition and assessment
- Review and enhance concepts, processes, methodologies, and tools for holistically defining and assessing sustainability
Enhance integration of vertical UCs with 6G and enabling technologies to jointly reduce footprint and maximise handprint
- Analyse, develop and deliver vertical UCs integrating 6G and enabling technologies to improve sustainability values
- Develop and deliver Sustainability Management Plane (SMP) to enable E2E integrated sustainability-driven operation across network and vertical domains
Enhance 6G technologies to reduce footprint and increase handprint
- Develop and deliver solutions and enhancements for selected 6G technologies and components towards sustainability improvements, by reducing 6G footprint and increase handprint in vertical sectors
Validate, evaluate, and demonstrate sustainability value
- Validate 6G technologies on their impact to sustainability (positive / negative)
- Evaluate and demonstrate methodologies, concepts, and solutions on applicability, implementability, and wrt. sustainability impact
Impact generation, sustainability guidelines and strategic roadmap
- Consolidate means and measures to create impact from the project work, including guidelines, best practices, business models and a strategic (standardisation and regulation) roadmap, to drive the development of 6G in a sustainability-integrated direction
- Dissemination, standardisation, and exploitation of project outcomes
p-NET plays a central and multifaceted role in the SUSTAIN-6G project, contributing its expertise across multiple work packages to shape the future of sustainable 6G technologies. In WP2, p-NET supports the definition of sustainability needs and use cases, offering input to all tasks that consolidate 6G concepts, vertical use cases, and evaluation methodologies. Within WP3, p-NET’s involvement spans the creation of a 6G sustainability inventory, enhancing distributed energy optimization technologies, and advancing E2E sustainable service orchestration, drawing on its active participation in ETSI’s OSL open-source group.
In WP4, it contributes to improving smart grid operations by aligning 6G latency capabilities with energy vertical requirements. p-NET leads WP5’s demonstrator efforts, delivering proof-of-concept platforms that help stakeholders understand and assess sustainability trade-offs and integration outcomes. It also contributes to WP6 by supporting evaluation and validation activities through its role as a PoC host. Additionally, p-NET is active in WP7, focusing on disseminating results, supporting standardization, and engaging in exploitation activities, particularly through open science and regional innovation in Greece and Europe.