Broadband mobile networks are experiencing exponential traffic growth. It is predicted that this trend will continue in the next five to ten years with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 0.6 to 1.0. Hence the traffic (mostly data) carried by a mobile operator’s network in 2022 could be over 1000 times of that in 2012. This traffic growth presents a huge challenge to both the mobile industry and to academic researchers. Along with increased spectrum efficiency, spectrum bandwidth expansion and traffic offloading through WiFi, small cell deployment is regarded as one of the most promising ways to meet the use of broadband mobile service in both outdoor and in particular indoor scenarios in the next decade. The deployment of small cells in a macrocell coverage area leads to a multi-tier heterogeneous network (HetNet), in which a mix of access node types, such as macrocell, femtocell and relay, will co-exist. Despite the current research and development on small cell/HetNet from both industry and academia, there are still many challenges to be addressed and questions to be answered for successful small cell and HetNet deployment. These challenges range from the lack of fundamental understanding of HetNet network capacity to the need of Radio Access Network (RAN) Planning and Optimisation (PO) tool for HetNet deployment involving both indoor and outdoor scenarios. The DECADE project adopts the scheme of Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), with the effect of inter-sectorial efforts and knowledge integration to tackle the challenges in HetNet planning and optimization. The research consists in fundamental capacity analysis, system modeling, algorithm development, and performance engineering for HetNets. In addition, DECADE serves as a solid platform to promote long-term collaboration between academia and industry collaboration in a rapidly evolving area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Europe.

The EXPLOR project proposes the development of a comprehensive modular software with fully validated state of the art (SOTA) component and system level numerical models, cognitive and adaptive features, as well as libraries with novel use cases and scenarios targeting Next Generation (NG) converged Optical Wireless Networks (OWN). EXPLOR platform will be modelled to enable deep academic and techno-economic considerations of relevant beyond 5G (B5G) features in an integrated fashion, such as high mm-Wave (MMW) frequency Optical Front-haul (OFH), femtocell based communications, network cognition and Cloud-RAN (CRAN) environment functionalities. Novel, beyond SOTA models and system architectures will be pursued and included in the integrated EXPLOR platform. Relevant interface and feedback functionalities designed to enable modular inclusion of external, user generated scripts and satisfactory latency versus accuracy trade-offs will be pursued. As such, the platform development will lead to a number of relevant research outcomes in the field, as well as act as an extensive enabler of future innovation beyond 5G networks.

Every year a large number of visitors enter the European Union (EU) by cars, buses, trains or ships through land-border crossing points or sea ports bringing significant economic benefits; in particular, 9% of Europe’s GDP comes from tourism. This trend is set to continue, as Europe further considers visa liberalization agreements in a bid to sustain their competitive stance in the global tourism market. This will create major implications on the security and border management in the EU, as well as diminishing the Quality of Experience for passenger travel. Existing directives for controlling border crossing is to conduct checks using biometric data in conjunction with VIS (Visa Information Systems), as specified in the Schengen Border Code. However, current biometric systems rely on one mode of biometric data, that can at times can lead to false identification, in particular under uncontrolled conditions during live sample acquisition. Moreover, the current crop of scanning devices are limited in coverage and typically have fixed links, thus confining the range of border control applications and compromising the comfort of passengers. We aim to go beyond and propose an innovative passenger-centric biometric system that authenticates “on the fly”. We combine the scientific field of wireless security, biometric recognition and data fusion to develop a secure and wireless multimodal biometric scanning device for passenger verification targeting land and sea border control applications. The research approach is the basis for a RISE training action that we refer to as eBORDER, that is foreseen to enhance both the career potential of staff members and innovation capacity at the institutional level. In this context, this action brings together key players from industry and academia with complementary expertise on security, biometrics, data fusion and practical experimentation to train staff by research through intersectorial and international staff exchanges.