The IN project has identified the five reference Industrial Use Cases (UCs) that set the general research framework of all activities and has defined the internal procedure to possibly introduce other UCs in the future.

These 5 UCs refer to current and future industrial applications like motion controllers, process monitoring, mobile control panels, mobile robots and plant asset management and arise from detailed discussions with the Italian Manufacturing Industry, as well as analysis of standard documentation.

Moreover, within the project, an initial group of 23 research activities have been defined with clear goals. They aim to produce scientific results, in the form of publications, patents, and demonstrators to validate the telecommunication role in industrial environments.

Five deliverables have been released so far, two of which are dedicated to the definition and characterization (requirements, key enabling technologies, etc.) of the UCs, whereas the other two include a first set of theoretical results coming from the 23 activities and the last one is the first deliverable summarizing the dissemination activities of the project (social network posts, meetings, conference speeches, etc.).

However, the project has also provided an important contribution to the expected facilities of the Spoke 5 laboratory that will be built, to support the development of industry-relevant and 6G-oriented proof-of-concepts.

The project is starting the definition phase of a first Proof-of-Concepts that will be realized in synergy with the MOSS project and will be held at Villa Griffone.

The main outcomes of interest as of today for the IN project are:

1. the identification and characterization (in terms of description, requirements and key enabling technologies) of 5 Industrial Use Cases (UCs)
2. kick-off of 23 interdisciplinary research activities
3. submission of the five deliverables concerning a detailed description of the chosen UCs, an overview on the technological evolution of industrial networks towards 6G, and a first set of theoretical results coming from the 23 activities, as well as a report on the dissemination activities of IN
4. submission of a first set of scientific publications
5. submission of an innovation idea to the corresponding RESTART mission 3
6. definition of the expected facilities of the Spoke 5 laboratory that will include, among others, drones, automated guided vehicles, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, and high-frequency instrumentations for radio signal characterization
7. discussions with 2 Italian Industry Consortia to promote the project activities
8. realization of 1 webinar with an external stakeholder of the manufacturing world (others will follow), and
9. recording of 7 video pills to disseminate the activities of the project to a broad audience
10. organization of a special session related to the topic of the project during the "IEEE Metrology for Industry 4.0 & IoT” conference
11. organization of a one-day workshop together with three other European projects (TIMES, 6G-SHINE and TERRAMETA) where the main activities of the four projects have been presented via technical speeches.

1. Network architectures that are secure by design: By leveraging federated learning frameworks, where industrial devices learn to perform tasks in a distributed manner, and by incorporating corresponding entities into the network architecture (e.g., the parameter server), data communication can be limited to the transmission of AI models rather than raw data, thus enhancing data security.
2. Industry-relevant theoretical and experimental activities: Following extensive discussions with industrial companies and internal brainstorming sessions, the project has identified five key use cases of interest: Control-to-Control among motion controllers, process monitoring, mobile control panels, mobile robots in intra-building environments, and mobile robots and plant asset management/control in outside-building environments. The project's activities are focused on driving innovation in these applications, with also the goal of developing five Proofs of Concept (PoCs) to test the potential of various theoretical ideas in real-world settings. The PoCs will showcase data analysis algorithms, multi-technology localization techniques, high-frequency radio links, and the interplay between AI and 5G;
3. Network of Digital Twin: The project leads the proposal to explore the integration of Network Digital Twins (NDTs) into existing telecommunications infrastructure, leveraging advanced modeling, simulations, and analytics techniques to enable automatic processes to enhance operational efficiency, resilience, and decision-making procedures. The data measured from the network (the observed real system) can include geographical/geometric data, channel models, network node characteristics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), MDT (Minimization of Drive Tests) data, Key Value Indicators (KVIs), and other. The project will focus on developing a comprehensive framework for creating and managing NDTs, encompassing aspects such as data acquisition, model construction, synchronization, and visualization. The NDTs will provide an accurate representation of the network, enabling features such as proactive monitoring, predictive maintenance, and optimization strategies. Additionally, the project will investigate the intertwinement of NDTs with other DTs, such as those representing physical assets (e.g., in industry plants, or cities) or environmental conditions. Finally, testbeds envisioning the integration of the NDT concept with O-RAN architectures will be developed. The availability of precise and up-to-date 'open data' platforms will facilitate cost optimization and collaboration across application domains and stakeholders.
4. 6G-oriented lab equipment: The project has actively contributed to identifying the potential equipment that can enhance the Spoke laboratory in Bologna for 6G-like experiments. This includes UAVs, mobile robots, signal generators, signal acquisition instruments, vector network analyzers (VNA), and more.

1. Importance-aware scheduling: Within a federated learning framework, the project is developing intelligent algorithms to schedule user equipment (UEs) based on the "importance" of the AI models they transmit to the parameter server. This approach aims to maximize performance metrics such as accuracy and convergence time.
2. End-to-end analysis of industrial networks: The project is conducting end-to-end round-trip-time (RTT) evaluations, encompassing all elements of an industrial network. This includes the processing times of devices, the latency introduced by the 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) and the 5G Core Network (CN), and the inference time of Deep Neural Network (DNN) algorithms. These evaluations aim to determine whether the performance provided by five different 5G network architectures and different scheduling algorithms are sufficient for industrial safety-critical applications.
3. Full-stack end-to-end simulations: The project is developing a comprehensive full-stack end-to-end simulator to assess the performance of mobile radio networks for industrial applications. Different research activities are using the same simulator tools. This approach involves defining application-specific KPIs, channel, traffic, and mobility models, network protocols and architectures, AI tools, and software-defined approaches. If the results are promising, this tool may be proposed to the entire Italian research and industrial community as an open-source platform.
4. THz communications: The project is evaluating the role of THz-based wireless communications in industrial environments, focusing on new waveforms that can cope with the intrinsic impairments of this band (e.g., phase noise), physical layer security, channel modeling, and radio planning. Significant modifications are required due to the inclusion of new network elements called Intelligent Reflective Surfaces (IRS) that should be properly configured to reshape the radio channel.

1. The Cascade Call for the project, titled Technologies, Algorithms, and Protocols for Use Cases of Industrial Networks (TAP-IN), was meticulously designed to include 4 industrial partners and 3 academic centers. IN aims to actively involve industrial partners in shaping both theoretical frameworks and experimental activities. Additionally, TAP-IN will incorporate another industrial partner through a specific agreement to support the development of Proof of Concept (PoC).
2. The unique industrial partner, TIM, has been involved since the inception of IN to provide: (i) suggestions, indications, and guidelines for all theoretical activities; (ii) participation in dissemination activities; (iii) selection of contributions that could influence the evolution of the 3GPP standards; and (iv) promotion, support, and contribution to the Digital Twin proposal.
3. Organization of webinars featuring invited speakers from the industry world (Birex, Robopac-Aetna, Huawei)

• Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
• Alma Mater Studiorum - Università degli Studi di Bologna
• Università degli Studi di Catania
• Università degli Studi di Firenze
• Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"
• Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT)
• TIM S.p.A.

• AC2 Srl
• EBWorld Srl
• Niva Servizi Informatici Srl
• Università degli Studi di Ferrara
• Università degli Studi di Parma
• Università degli Studi di Trento
• Wewit Srl

Publications

• Expected: 36
• Accomplished: 70
• Readiness: <100 %

Joint Publications

• Expected: 18
• Accomplished: 7
• Readiness: 67%

Talks/Dissemination Events

• Expected: 6
• Accomplished: 6
• Readiness: <100% %

Realizing Demo/PoCs

• Expected: 6
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 29 % (as expected)

Project Meetings

• Expected: 12
• Accomplished: 15
• Readiness: <100 %

Patents/Innovations 

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: <100%

Open-source contributions

• Expected: 0
• Accomplished: 6
• Readiness: <100 %

Standardization contributions

• Expected: 0
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 100 %

• Expected: 3
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 57%

• Expected: 3
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 57 %

• Expected: 2
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 15
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 15
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 11 %

• Expected: 15
• Accomplished: 7
• Readiness: 80%

• Expected: 0
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 100 %

• Expected: 0
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 100 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 100 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 1
• Readiness: 100 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %

• Expected: 1
• Accomplished: 0
• Readiness: 0 %