The expected outcomes are addressing several technologies and architectures that may be applicable for a wide range of innovative IoT connectivity scenarios as those described by the Use Case analysis of the Hexa-X-II flagship project. They target mainly:

• Characterisation and performance studies of technologies enabling the advent of (close to) zero-energy devices, in particular for unattended long-term IoT operations with minimal loss of performance from the network side.
• Enabling technologies and architectures to operate 6G for IoT in unlicensed bands (6G-U) in promising related use-case scenarios (e.g., industrial deployment).
• Design of novel innovative IoT connected devices and operation modes that will enable new services and applications supporting IoT scenarios in a 6G context and showing clear performance improvements (KPI and/or KVI) over a legacy 5G implementation.

Objective:

Please refer to the "Specific Challenges and Objectives" section for Stream B-01 in the Work Programme, available under ‘Topic Conditions and Documents - Additional Documents’.

Scope:

Proposals should address one of the following three areas (and clearly identify which area is being addressed):

1. Sensing and connectivity technologies and architectures to enable the advent of (closed to) zero energy devices: The technologies enabling the device to function without being battery powered are in scope as well as the networking protocols and the optimised connectivity operation enabling the overall energy budget to remain close to zero, in demanding IoT scenarios (e.g., for long-term unattended operations such as for the whole device lifecycle). This may also include passive and battery-less NTN IoT terminals and components allowing ultra-low power/unattended operation.
2. Communication technologies and architectures enabling 6G unlicensed operations for IoT: Related use-cases environments of interest are e.g. industrial environments, healthcare/hospital deployment, campus networks. Aspects of (fast) deployment in these contexts should be considered as well as the related data processing over a computing continuum that may span multiple domains and service requirements.
3. IoT applications that can benefit from 6G characteristics, offering better performance compared to a 5G implementation: The scope includes both the optimization through 6G features of applications of diverse nature, with technologies enabling a wide range of versatility and intelligence for implementation/deployment of the needed service features required to serve the target use cases as well as the design of novel connected IoT devices that will enable new services and applications.

Note: To ensure a balanced portfolio within this cluster of activities focusing on IoT devices and technologies, grants will be awarded to proposals not only in order of ranking but at least also to one project that is the highest ranked within each of the above 3 areas/priorities, provided that the proposals attain all thresholds (and subject to available budget). Proposals may want to address several of the proposed priorities, but they should indicate clearly what is the centre of gravity of their proposal (i.e. the main covered priority). See General call conditions, section 3.F of Appendix 1.