The QV-LIFT project aims at building the foundation of the Ground Segment Technology for the future Q/V band Terabit SatCom systems. This ambitious task will be undertaken developing core hardware and software technologies addressing urgent physical to network level needs. QV-LIFT intends to demonstrate a TRL6 for all the technologies developed and, significantly, integrating them in a realistic scenario enabled by access to the Q/V band Aldo Paraboni payload, on board of AlphaSat, and by the relevant Ground Segment made available by the Italian Space Agency. QV-LIFT is committed to increase the maturity level of key satellite communication technologies and to contribute to a more competitive positioning of SatCom European manufacturers in the marketplace in many ways. 1)QV-LIFT intends to advance the European RF SatCom technology by developing the following building blocks and systems at Q/V band: i)GaN power amplifier MMICs at V band with up to 5W RF power output ii)a V band power combining High Power Amplifier based on GaN technology targeting up to 15 W power output; iii)a high performance Block Up Converter operating in the V band; iv)a Low Noise Block down converter operating in the Q band; v)Q/V band, Tx/Rx, single aperture antennas for the mobile and fixed terminals; vi)a Q/V band TX/RX single aperture terminal suitable for airborne applications; 2)QV-LIFT intends to develop the first Q/V band Smart Gateways Management System able to counteract the propagation impairments removing one the main obstacle to the deployment of the future Q/V band Ground Segment. 3)QV-LIFT fosters links between academia, large companies and SMES. In doing so, QV-LIFT targets the full and stable integration of SMEs into the SatCom value chain by developing know how in the following key areas which are recognized as strategic for the future SatCom market: -MMIC GaN integrated circuits, -Q/V band RF components, -Ground Segment Infrastructures.

RIFE addresses the major societal challenge of providing affordable Internet access to those who cannot afford it by solving the technological challenge to increase the efficiency of the underlying transport networks and the involved architectures and protocols. The RIFE solution will harness unused transmission capacity, combined with placing content caches and service functionality closer to the user and will use heterogeneous transmission opportunities that range from localized mesh and home networks over well-connected ISP backhauls to scarce satellite resources. RIFE will build upon recent advances on information-centric and delay-tolerant networking by developing optimized dissemination strategies for the involved transport networks, unified within a novel communication architecture that will provide clear abstractions to application developers. We will develop, deploy and showcase our solution in a real-life setting within a large-scale community network in Spain, demonstrating the technology and economic opportunities that the RIFE platform provides. We will complement our real-life testbeds with emulation scenarios to enable the evaluation of our novel resource management schemes at scale, while integrating with our prototype platform. On the economic side, we will develop business opportunities for local authorities as well as backhaul network providers to create a sustainable value chain by introducing virtual network operators that utilize the under-used capacity in a new business relationship with local customers, enabling novel and often socially-driven business models. The involvement of a technology, equipment, as well as satellite and community network provider will allow for maximizing the commercial exploitation of RIFE within real deployments and towards standard communities within the IETF/IRTF and beyond, placing RIFE in the centre of a growing community of practitioners that all share the same goal: making the Internet affordable to everybody!

FIWARE Mexico aims at enhancing FIWARE-driven collaboration between EU and Mexico, based on the adoption, deployment and improvement of FIWARE in Mexico as a framework that will open up new horizons for future cooperation in the ICT domain. The Mexican FIWARE Lab node operated by INFOTEC is part of the FIWARE infrastructure, which facilitates the use of the FIWARE platform for local innovative players. However, to bring new Mexican players into the FIWARE arena and create a sustainable collaborative environment between Europe and Mexico, it is necessary to set and manage the proper conditions needed to support the pillars of FIWARE in Mexico to go beyond the Lab initiative. FIWARE Mexico proposes a new approach to actively and strategically engage all relevant stakeholders in supporting the uptake of FIWARE technologies for sustainable collaboration between EU and Mexico. The project will establish Working Groups to engage innovators from the industry, research communities and end users, such as Smart Cities players, in the FIWARE ecosystem. In parallel, dedicated FIWARE technology’ training programmes will be implemented for developers, integrators and contributors, embracing the whole open source community, which will facilitate the adoption of FIWARE technologies and the development of applications to be commercialized in Mexico and EU. Also FIWARE Mexico will focus on key aspects that until now have only partly been addressed in the EU-Mexico policy dialogue, such as the identification of ICT priorities and FIWARE topics of strategic interest for future R&I collaboration. The FIWARE Mexico consortium is in a unique position to leverage the required expertise, foster engagement with key players, ensure a shared vision, encourage networking, reach a wide range of policy-makers, industrial and economic leaders throughout EU and Mexico, and mobilize resources towards result-oriented actions that will significantly reinforce the EU-Mexico collaboration in FIWARE.