July 9, 2025
The Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications (IIT) continues to advance its research infrastructure, as the FRONT Research Group’s Beyond-5G/6G Athens experimentation platform at NCSR Demokritos—developed in collaboration with the OTE Group of Companies (HTO)/COSMOTE—has recently been expanded with two new state-of-the-art testbeds.
The first addition is an O-RAN facility, a fully fledged open-RAN laboratory that supports multi-vendor and virtualised RAN research. The environment enables interoperability trials, xApps and rApps development, and integration with RIC components, strengthening the platform’s capacity for open and intelligent radio access experimentation.
A second testbed introduces a portable 5G facility powered by an O5GS Core, offering a field-deployable 5G network in a compact, mobile form. With exposed NEF APIs and OpenCAPIF interfaces, the setup provides real-time service exposure and facilitates advanced edge-integration scenarios across diverse deployment contexts.
These new domains substantially enhance the platform’s support for Horizon Europe flagship initiatives—including 6G-SANDBOX, SUNRISE-6G, ENVELOPE and 6G-VERSUS—while also enabling SMEs to prototype and validate next-generation 5G/6G services through the Open Calls issued by these projects.
Efforts such as these underline IIT’s ongoing commitment to fostering open experimentation environments and accelerating Europe’s leadership in emerging connectivity technologies.