On 12 February 2026, the Portuguese pilot partners successfully carried out the 1st trial of the maritime port use case of 6G-VERSUS at the Coastal Fishing Port of Aveiro.
Led by Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), together with JSIO, OneSource, Instituto de Telecomunicações – Aveiro (ITAV) and Porto de Aveiro (APA), the activity demonstrated how Beyond-5G (B5G) and emerging 6G technologies can support sustainable, efficient port operations, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal.
The trial centered on AI-based, energy-efficient environmental monitoring, integrating IoT and AI technologies to enable:
- Near real-time water quality observation
- Early environmental incident detection
- Enhanced, data-driven decision-making for port authorities
Trial Objectives
🔹Present the Portuguese cluster’s activities and strategic vision within the project
🔹Engage key stakeholders
🔹Capture lessons learned from the first official trial
🔹Collect feedback and assess the perceived B5G/6G-derived impact from stakeholders’ perspective
Agenda Overview
– Background & Project Overview
IPN introduced the background of 6G-VERSUS and presented the overall project vision.
– Portuguese Cluster Presentation
- IPN detailed the maritime port use case, key innovations, and partner roles.
- Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA) outlined the end-user motivation and the environmental monitoring challenges addressed by the trial.
– Trials Execution
In the first part of the trial, JSIO demonstrated the environmental monitoring V-App, and its usage via 5G NR RedCap-connected and solar-powered smart buoys for real-time water quality monitoring in the Port. In the second part of the trial, Onesource demonstrated Mobitrust V-App and AI-App for object detection and environmental monitoring in conjunction with a N-App for dynamically requesting QoS adjustments for enhancing video streaming performance.
– Questionnaires & Interviews
Led by IPN, stakeholder feedback was systematically collected through structured questionnaires and interviews.
Key highlights of the trial included a guided tour of JSIO’s environmental monitoring dashboard and live data feed, its usage for live remote sensor reconfiguration, the explanation of solar-powered energy subsystem and power profile, as well as the comparison with conventional 5G and LTE alternatives.
Moreover, the trial by Onesource showcased the potential for 6G-VERSUS V-App, N-App, AI-App) triplet in enhancing the usage of drones and RC boats for collecting high-resolution video and other rich data in varying maritime points of interest for environmental incident detection or response.
Finally, the feedback collected from the stakeholders (mostly from environmental monitoring research area) was a key outcome of the trial.
