The 2024 EUCNC & 6G Summit took place in Antwerp from June 3 to 6, merging two successful conferences in telecommunications: the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EUCNC) and the 6G Summit from Finland’s pioneering 6G Flagship programme. Supported by the European Commission, the event focused on a comprehensive range of telecommunications topics, from 5G deployment and mobile IoT to 6G exploration and future communications systems and networks. This included experimentation, testbeds, applications, and services.

Over the  past few years, the summit has become a nexus for cutting-edge research and industry innovation, attracting over 900 delegates from more than 40 countries. The event featured an exhibition with more than 50 exhibitors showcasing the latest technology advancements, particularly those from EU R&I programmes.

OpenNebula Systems’ Contribution

As Principal Edge Solutions Architect, I’ve the chance to participate as a panelist in the “SNS and the Edge Evolution Panel” which was part of one of the workshops inside the track: “EU Collaborative Research & Innovation Focal Points in the SNS JU”. The panel acknowledged the significant upcoming changes in the EU Edge landscape, highlighting both challenges and opportunities for the SNS Research Community.

Moderated by David Artuñedo from Telefónica Digital Innovation, the event also included insights from Andreas Floriath of DT and Pedro Merino from the University of Málaga. These experts discussed the transformative impact on SNS and the broader telecommunications sector.

We took the opportunity to discuss how OpenNebula Systems is involved in the IPCEI-CIS and ONEedge5G projects, which aim to establish the company as the premier European solution for federation. I’ve also highlighted OpenNebula Systems’ leadership roles as Chair of the Facilitation Group and Chair of Workstream 2 (WS2) of the IPCEI-CIS. WS2 focuses on Cloud-Edge Capabilities, positioning OpenNebula’s solutions as foundational for ONEnextgen—a comprehensive open-source project addressing Federation, Meta-Orchestration, XaaS Provision, Management, Optimization, and Monitoring (MO&M) for interoperable cloud and edge systems. The integration of AI/ML capabilities from the ONEedge5G project is accelerating development.

Panel Conclusion

The panel concluded with a call to improve collaboration among relevant EU Projects in order to foster faster results. For example, taking advantage of 6G-Sandbox dispersed infrastructure, now deployed in four sites between four countries (and two more coming), to allow early testing of the ICPEI-CIS proposed functionality and avoid costly replication

An interesting question was raised when asked what role hyper-scalers play in these scenarios. The consensus was that all these projects, and specifically the IPCEI-CIS, align with the EC’s mandate on data sovereignty, which translates to developing an alternative to the dependency of foreign alternatives to process our data needs with open source solutions. To this end, by 2030 we are requested to build 10,000 edge nodes that will process Europe’s computing needs as close as possible to the end user in an open environment. A clear message on our path forward.

Looking Ahead

The 2024 EUCNC & 6G Summit underscored the importance of collaboration and innovation in advancing telecommunications. OpenNebula Systems’ active participation and leadership roles highlight its commitment to driving the future of cloud and edge computing within the EU.

Don’t miss future updates and insights from these groundbreaking projects. Stay connected with OpenNebula Systems for the latest developments in cloud and edge computing technology.