EMERGE6G - Sistema de antEnas Modular, Extragrande, Reconfigurable e inteliGente para comunicacionEs 6G

EMERGE6G project aims to have sufficiently general, modular and versatile equipment that is capable of investigating multiple areas of the B5G/6G physical layer with a large number of antennas. Having equipment capable of performing these demonstrations is complex and expensive, and therefore there are few institutions at the international level with this capability. EMERGE6G will develop experiments in the sub-6GHz and millimeter bands, based on a modular architecture to facilitate its extension in the future. In the sub-6GHz band there will be 4 modules equipped with 32 antennas each based on software defined radio (SDR) technology where over-the-air communications will be performed. This equipment will allow, among other 5G/6G experiments, demonstrations of communications with Extra Large Antenna Arrays (ELAA) or cell-free massive MIMO. In the case of ELAA, a system of up to 128 antennas will be obtained when all the modules are combined together with antenna arrays of overall dimensions 2×2 or 3×3 meters, so as to allow for experiments in the near field region. If the modules work independently, and thanks to the fact that each module will have some mobility, it will be possible to perform cell free experiments with different configurations: 2 base stations (BS) with 64 antennas, 4 BSs with 32 antennas, etc. In both cases, the necessary computing elements for centralized or distributed computing will be considered. In the millimeter band, 4 modules have also been considered to investigate digital techniques in order to improve the energy efficiency of transmitters in this band, considering hardware imperfections, and to reduce the number of components and elements per antenna grouping. In addition, it has been provided with the necessary elements to investigate the design and joint orchestration of the access network and the edge for O-RAN-based architectures.