The UPC Unveils A Leading Scientific Infrastructure In Spain For Testing 6G Technologies In Real-World Conditions

On 8 April, the UPC unveiled 6GLabNet, an autonomous experimental network designed to test and validate next-generation mobile communications technologies and services in real environments. Serving research, teaching, public administration and industry, the infrastructure is a cutting-edge scientific facility in Europe and a key asset for accelerating innovation in 6G technology with artificial intelligence.

The adoption of 6G technologies will have a direct impact across society, with applications ranging from safe autonomous driving and the use of drones to speed up the delivery of medical supplies to more efficient management of emergency services, among many others. The deployment of these new technologies requires experimental infrastructures for testing in conditions as close as possible to real environments, prior to commercial rollout.

This is now possible at the 6GLabNet of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), a unique, state-of-the-art infrastructure in Europe and a pioneer in Spain. It has been launched to experiment with 5G+ and 6G communications technologies with AI, reduce technological risk and facilitate the validation of innovative solutions in a real and controlled environment.

A 32-kilometre hybrid 6G network
The UPC’s 6GLabNet is a large-scale laboratory for designing, validating and optimising technological solutions based on advanced 5G networks and future 6G technologies. The infrastructure combines a high-capacity fibre-optic network with a 5G+ mobile network to ensure a smooth transition towards 6G. The result is a private mobile communications network with ultra-low latency (less than one millisecond), a crucial feature for the development of future communications, as it enables an extreme reduction in data transmission response times. The network is also deployed using flexible and scalable systems, capable of adapting to the pace of development of 6G applications.

6GLabNet integrates and fuses the communications network with artificial intelligence, offering AI as a service. Through intelligent AI agents at the network edge and in the cloud, communications are combined with computing and storage capabilities to enable the network to self-configure and self-manage with minimal human intervention.

The 6GLabNet network connects the North Diagonal Campus in Barcelona with the Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels through 32 kilometres of fibre-optic cable provided by the Government of Catalonia. Each campus acts as a data transmission and reception node via its installed antennas, with data fused through AI technologies.

This singular infrastructure is one of the few platforms of its kind in Europe and the first in Spain to incorporate outdoor base stations operating at millimetre-wave frequencies. It integrates a wide range of technologies and enables full fibre-optic connectivity to test solutions in real geographical scenarios beyond the laboratory. This reduces development times, minimises deployment risks and improves operational efficiency. The network ensures high-speed, reliable connections for the monitoring, validation and deployment of new devices, services and applications based on 6G technology. In addition, the dual 5G core, one on each campus, provides robustness and resilience against potential failures.

The network is used to develop 5G+ and 6G mobile communications technologies, to test new products created by companies and to support teaching at the two UPC schools driving the project: the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB) and the Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC).

At present, the new infrastructure is being used to develop mobility and AI projects, such as the 6G-EWOC assisted driving project and autonomous vehicle initiatives. AI applications are also being tested in agriculture at the Agròpolis in Viladecans and also in drones, latest-generation mobile phones, Industry 4.0 solutions, advanced robotics, augmented reality and real-time video. In addition to this large-scale infrastructure, emulators and measurement equipment are also available to support the research, forming an even more comprehensive platform.

The creation of this experimental platform is the result of the work of several research groups at the UPC’s Advanced Broadband Communications Centre (CCABA) as part of the 6G-OpenLab project (launched in September 2022) and the ELEGANT project (launched in April 2023). The development of the platform has been supported by €4 million in funding from the European Horizon 2020 programme, channelled through the UNICO I+D 6G programme of the Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service.

Presentation of 6GLabNet
The launch of the new infrastructure took place simultaneously on the North Diagonal Campus in Barcelona and the Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels, with speeches by the Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service Óscar López, the Delegate Councillor for Universities of the Castelldefels City Council Guillermo Massana, the Rector of the UPC Francesc Torres, the Barcelona’s 4th Deputy Mayor Jordi Valls, the Vice-Rector for Research Pedro Díez and the researchers responsible for the projects, José Antonio Lázaro and Anna Umbert from the ETSETB, and Cristina Cervelló Pastor from the EETAC, together with engineer Sebastià Sallent, also from the EETAC. Other authorities were also in attendance.

Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service Óscar López stated: “The network we are presenting today connects academia with digital reindustrialisation. 5G+ and 6G are essential to create and deploy high-quality digital services, but companies often face the obstacle of having nowhere to test their future products. Projects like this provide an answer to that challenge. The drive from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Spanish Government’s €4 million funding through the UNICO I+D 5G programme have been key to moving in this direction.”

Rector Francesc Torres said that the launch of 6GLabNet “is a highly significant milestone for our technological and innovation ecosystem. This research and development platform is designed to validate industrial prototypes and is therefore open to companies and public administrations. I urge the business community to make use of it. This will be a tangible way to justify the substantial public investment that has made it possible.” He added that the platform “also has a direct impact on human capital, as students at the EETAC and the ETSETB will be trained directly using these advanced technologies, tackling real industry challenges.”

The Delegate Councillor for Universities of the Castelldefels City Council, Guillermo Massana, stated that “for Castelldefels, the 6GLabNet UPC infrastructure means moving from being a city that hosts a university to becoming a laboratory city. This is not only an academic advance, but also a strategic opportunity to position the Castelldefels brand globally, shifting from being primarily a city of services and tourism to a hub that attracts talent, start-ups and multinational technology companies.”

The presentation of 6GLabNet included a live demonstration of the new infrastructure’s technological capabilities. A drone located at the DroneLab on the Baix Llobregat Campus was piloted from Barcelona in real time. The same campus showcased a robotic and autonomous vehicle developed at the UPC. A vehicle equipped by the UPC’s Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development (CD6) was also on display outside the North Diagonal Campus. This experimental prototype, equipped with AI and optical sensors, is being used to research ways of improving autonomous driving.

Technical characteristics of the network

• Fibre-optic connection between campuses, linking the two nodes over 32 km at high speed, with a capacity of up to 37 Tb/s.
• Ultra-low latency, of less than 1 millisecond.
• High-capacity 5G Core as the central network.
• Dual 5G Cores with georedundancy, ensuring robustness and resilience against potential failures at each campus.
• Six FR1 base stations (antennas), operating in the < 6 GHz frequency range, with three located on the North Diagonal Campus and three on the Baix Llobregat Campus.
• Four FR2 base stations (antennas), operating in the 26 GHz frequency range (millimetre wave), with two located on the North Diagonal Campus and two on the Baix Llobregat Campus.
• Six terminals equipped with mobile network tools (MNT).
• Two customer premises equipment (CPE) units for research purposes, supporting the FR1 and FR2 base stations (antennas).
• 6G-AI and AI as a service, deploying computing systems at the network edge (multi-access edge computing, MEC) and in a multitechnology cloud environment.
• Agentic AI systems to self-configure and self-manage network elements.

Other platform equipment:

• 5G protocol analysers, oscilloscopes and signal generators operating in FR1 and FR2 bands.
• CORE-RAN emulators based on Amarisoft, supporting LTE-M, NB-IoT and 5G RedCap.
• Server clusters using various technologies, OpenStack, Kubernetes and HPC.
• Sensor network applied to agriculture, with network support for the Agròpolis.
• Experimental time-sensitive networking (TSN).