Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is part of the European scientific project SUSTAIN-6G, which will assess and explore sustainable technologies, methods, and use cases for 6G communications technology, addressing environmental, economic, and social needs. This R&D consortium, coordinated by Nokia, will work on solutions for three specific areas of sustainable development: smart grids, e-health and telemedicine, and agriculture.
“This will be a flagship project contributing to sustainability by using mobile networks. The goal is not only to develop the technology to achieve this, but to lay the foundations for other projects to build upon,” explains Albert Banchs, project lead for SUSTAIN-6G at UC3M, and professor in the Department of Telematics Engineering at the university.
One of the main objectives of SUSTAIN-6G is to develop new solutions to tackle sustainability challenges using the tools provided by 6G communications technologies. The consortium will dedicate considerable time to working on use cases for three specific areas, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“On one hand, the project will develop a more sustainable mobile network technology, and on the other, it will use mobile networks in various sectors to make them more sustainable,” explains Albert Banchs. “Specifically, the research at UC3M will focus on developing more sustainable computing technologies for mobile networks,” he adds.
Peter Merz, Vice President of Nokia Standards,
said: “The UN Paris Agreement committed the world to combatting climate change. Every industry must do its part. SUSTAIN-6G will show how the communications industry will apply the next generation of networking to creating that sustainable future, overcoming not just environmental challenges but societal and economic challenges as well.”
Smart grids, telemedicine, and smart agriculture
In the case of smart grids, the consortium will explore how 6G could be used to create microgrids that manage electricity demand. SUSTAIN-6G will also investigate the use of AI technologies for real-time control of distribution networks. This could lead to more efficient and resilient grids that minimize disruptions while providing the flexibility to draw energy from diverse sources as the world transitions to renewables like solar and wind.
In e-health and telemedicine, the consortium will generate new ideas on how 6G can make digital health more inclusive. 6G infrastructure could not only provide a far-reaching infrastructure for securely transmitting and analyzing medical data, but it also could be the foundation for new home-based online assessment services. These networks could improve the diagnosis and treatment process in underserved communities. Meanwhile AI could help detect disease outbreaks at early stages.
The consortium will also investigate how 6G connectivity could be allocated on a temporary basis to enable smart agricultural applications that require high bandwidth, sensing, telemetry, data analytics and automation. For instance, 6G’s edge cloud capabilities could be harnessed to handle high-priority farming-equipment automation tasks during harvests or provide advanced processing capabilities that integrate data from field sensors, climate stations, soil analysis and satellite imagery to provide contextualized information during the growing season.
SUSTAIN-6G has broad representation from industry and academia. The consortium includes network equipment and services vendors, communications services providers, industrial equipment manufacturers, European research institutions and universities, and many small-and medium-sized enterprises. SUSTAIN-6G will kick off in January of 2025 and is scheduled to complete its work in 2027.