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Spain's Enable-6G Project Paves Way for 6G Innovation

Networking

Business Honor
22 May, 2025

The Spanish-led Enable-6G project drives Europe's 6G advancements with breakthroughs in networking technologies and innovation.

A Spanish research project, Enable-6G, has come to an end after making key breakthroughs in next-generation networking technologies that have placed Spain firmly in the middle of Europe's 6G race. Led by the Madrid-based IMDEA Networks Institute, the project had top industry and academic partners such as Telefónica, NEC Europe, BluSpecs, and PI Lighting.

Supported by the NextGenerationEU recovery fund and Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), Enable-6G was centered on networking innovations that would drive the 6G standard. Some of the areas of investigation were low-power communication, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), and advanced wireless sensing—all of which would transform how future networks function.

Enable-6G produced more than 20 research outputs and constructed real-world prototypes, among them a testing platform for improving location-tracking precision in 5G networks. Enable-6G also designed wireless sensing algorithms to allow for real-time monitoring of the environment, paving the way for smart agriculture and industrial automation.

From a networking perspective, Enable-6G's activities in RIS and MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) antenna technologies can greatly enhance spectral efficiency and signal propagation, two key elements for high-density, high-performance 6G networks.

While the project is independent of the EU's Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU), it follows European aspirations for digital infrastructure dominance closely. Whether the outputs of Enable-6G are able to impact larger EU projects such as 6G-Leader is yet to be determined.

As competition globally continues to escalate, Enable-6G has made foundational progress in scalable, energy-efficient, and intelligent networking — a future foundation for connectivity.