Track A – 6G-PathToVLC

The testbed comprises two physical nodes. The first is an outdoor “Smart city” node, deployed throughout UPV’s campus, which acts as a living laboratory for smart city experimentation. This campus, hosting over 30,000 users, is a dynamic environment that closely resembles a real urban deployment, capable of integrating a variety of sensors and unmanned vehicles. The outdoor node features two radio sites operating in 3GPP n40 (20 MHz) and n258 (800 MHz) bands. A diverse set of 5G terminals provided by Fivecomm are available for connecting to these radios, including both broadband modems compliant with 3GPP Release 16 and Reduced Capability (RedCap) devices aligned with Release 17. RedCap devices, in particular, have been integrated into the infrastructure to support the evaluation of low-complexity, low-power use cases. They can be integrated into the available weather stations, radar systems and unmanned vehicles, such as the Robotnik Summit and Unitree Go2, equipped with LiDAR and cameras.

The second node is an indoor “Education” node located within UPV’s Immersive Communications Laboratory. This facility houses two pico-antennas operating in the n78 band (100 MHz), designed to support immersive applications that require high bandwidth and low latency, such as virtual and augmented reality, volumetric video, and haptic interaction. The indoor node benefits from a specialised array of immersive hardware, such as volumetric and 360º video capture systems, LED-based chroma studios, and holographic rendering units. XR applications are supported by head-mounted displays featuring real-time passthrough capabilities, while kinaesthetic interaction is enabled via haptic gloves and vests. In addition, the lab integrates indoor robotic platforms such as the UR5e manipulator and the Robotnik Theron autonomous vehicle.

Both nodes are connected to the same 5G core network. The list of available cores includes commercial and open-source cores—namely Open5GS, Cumucore, Athonet, and Open5GCore—each capable of supporting service-based architecture and slicing functions. The Open5GS is the preferred solution, where seven User Plane Functions (UPFs) are deployed and associated with specific Data Network Names (DNNs). Slicing capabilities have been validated not only in the downlink but also in the uplink direction.

For computing tasks, the infrastructure relies on both an edge computing central site (HPE ProLiant servers and Open Edge Airframe hardware) and a self-managed edge-cloud platform based on AWS Outposts, which brings cloud-native compute and storage capabilities directly to the local premises.

To complement the physical and virtual infrastructure, the testbed incorporates a robust API exposure framework, which plays a key role in enabling programmability, automation, and third-party integration. The infrastructure supports Network-as-Code (NaC), allowing network functionalities to be exposed and manipulated via standardised APIs. This facilitates dynamic resource allocation, slice instantiation, and service customization by external applications. The deployment is also aligned with OpenCAPIF to ensure interoperability between API producers and consumers in a secure and controlled manner. Additionally, the testbed includes OpenSlice, an open-source orchestration layer that provides TMForum-compliant service management APIs and supports the onboarding of services, management of network slices, and coordination across multiple domains.

Together, these equipment and these interfaces allow developers and experimenters to interact with the infrastructure in a modular and programmable way, facilitating the validation of vertical-specific applications within the OC2 scope.