Tavoite

Rural regions (globally and in northern Finland and Sweden) have for decades struggled with the development of secure and reliable connectivity services for all residents and visitors. As of recently, the increasing divide between cities and countryside, is receiving increased attention. The UN’s SDGs are instrumental, but also the ongoing war in Europe has highlighted the need for robust, secure wireless infrastructure, available to everyone. Creating resilience northern Sweden and Finland therefore constitutes a strong common interest of the two regions.This project addresses the challenge of societal resilience in rural regions. Robustnessand security of tomorrow’s 6G networks, cloud and IoT services must be guaranteed and the general availability of broadband connectivity and Internet services in rural parts of our region must improve. The project’s main objective is to develop, demonstrate and disseminate new technologies that will improve societal resilience of future 6G networks in the Aurora region.

Tulokset

The project will address these challenges by (1) developing new technology for 6G cellular networks available for uptake in the 6G standard by 2025 (2) exploiting and combining the mutual expertise on cellular networks with Lapland University of Applied Sciences and the universities in Luleå and Oulu, and (3) involving the respective industrial networks on either side of the border.Key targeted results include development of new quantitative tools to evaluate and measure cellular coverage inequality, development of new, energy-efficient 6G technology for rural and remote areas, new IoT device localisation methods, and improved network security functions. Finally, we develop understanding about Sapmiand reindeer herders’ connectivity needs and about the feasibility to mount base station antennas onto windmill towers.Upon successful completion of this project a remaining imprint will have been made that helps future 6G network improve societal resilience in the rural Aurora region.