Open Call 2 Winners

WEBSAT-6G

Weather- and Environment-aware Backhaul using SATellite for 6G Communications

Battery-powered 5G RAN with Starlink backhaul, optimized through energy-aware RAN control and weather-aware NTN scheduling for resilient rural connectivity.

WEBSAT-6G develops and validates an energy- and weather-aware 5G RAN with NTN satellite backhaul for off-grid and remote deployments, focusing on farming use cases. It builds on the UMA 6G AnyWhere testbed, which already integrates a private 5G RAN and Starlink backhaul under battery operation. On the terrestrial side, the project uses open-source SDR-based RAN platforms, mainly srsRAN and also OpenAirInterface, to implement energy-saving adaptations such as bandwidth scaling, DRX tuning, and duty-cycling. On the NTN side, it combines weather API data with measured Starlink KPIs to create lightweight ML models that capture how meteorological conditions affect link performance.

These models enable adaptive scheduling that prioritizes delay-sensitive traffic while batching non-urgent flows. The project will deliver a TRL-7 prototype, cross-platform configurations, open datasets linking power, network, and weather data, and deployment guidelines for sustainable 5G-NTN connectivity in rural and agricultural settings.