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.

Tulosten hyödynnettävyys

It has been estimated that if everything continues as it is now, internet connectivity bites 30% of total global energy consumption. Therefore, low energy consumption solutions considered in the Arctic 6G project solutions would be important inputs to 6G development, in addition to solutions that help to mitigate the digital divide between urban and rural/remote areas. Consequently, the exit strategy is to promote the results to 6G community such that they could be included into the 6G standard. 6G standardization will start around year 2027 and 6G will be in use in 2030s. With that respect, the Arctic 6G project results would be available in right moment. Indeed, we see that the Arctic 6G project is a link in the chain of activities that UOULU and LTU have had, have and will have in this fight against digital divide. This chain is a part of global efforts and our international collaboration will spread our results to wider community.