The 6G-VERSUS project was represented at the 3rd ATHENA Workshop, held in conjunction with IEEE CloudNet 2026 in Athens, Greece, with three scientific papers acknowledging the project and highlighting research developments towards next-generation connectivity.
Dr. Irina Ciornei from the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus, and George Makropoulos and Spyridon Georgoulas from the FRONT Research Group at NCSR “DEMOKRITOS”, presented three research papers addressing key aspects of next-generation connectivity.
Three Conference Papers
1. George Makropoulos, Iraklis Spyrou, Spyridon Georgoulas, Dimitris Salmatanis, Harilaos Koumaras, Foteini Setaki, Stefanos Plastras, Evangelos Anagnostopoulos, Vaios Koumaras, and George Lyberopoulos. ‘Realizing AI-Native Services through the 6G-Application Paradigm’.
This paper introduces the 6G-Application framework that combines three parts: a V-App for service logic, an N-App for network control and orchestration, and an AI-App for embedded intelligence. It demonstrates part of the framework through the wildfire detection, monitoring, and search-and-rescue use case of the Greek pilot, where two AI-Apps work together in a closed loop.
2. Spyridon Georgoulas, George Makropoulos, Ioannis Kontizas, Dimitris Uzunidis, and Harilaos Koumaras. ‘Neural Radio Fields: Learning Continuous 3D Radio Maps for 6G Networks’.
This paper introduces Neural Radio Fields (NRFs), a continuous 3D representation of wireless environments using SIREN-based Implicit Neural Representations. Trained on real-world 5G measurements, NRFs enable accurate RSRP and SINR estimation at arbitrary spatial locations, outperform conventional interpolation techniques, and provide compact, storage-efficient radio maps
3. Panagiotis Chrysanthou, Kyriakos Karlettis, Eleni Tekki, Irina Ciornei, Markos Asprou, Panayiotis Kolios and Georgios Ellinas, ‘An OpenAirInterface-Based 5G Testbed for Smart-Grid Wide-Area Monitoring, Control, and Cross-Domain Observability’.
This paper presented the developments and enhancements made to our pre-piloting testbed in order to allow end-to-end control-in-the-loop tests for the smart-grid use cases. These developments were aligned with the needs and requirements for testing and validation of the triplet for the Bulgarian pilot, before being deployed in the actual pilot.
All three presentations attracted audience interest, generating questions and discussions on the research findings and their potential applications.
6G-VERSUS Supporting the ATHENA Workshop for the Second Consecutive Year
Beyond its scientific contributions, 6G-VERSUS was also a Technical Sponsor of the ATHENA Workshop for the second consecutive year, alongside SAFE-6G, ELASTIC Project, O-CEI Horizon, ENVELOPE Project, SUNRISE-6G, DeepTechSeeds, and ANTIDOTE MSCA project.
The workshop featured three dedicated sessions, ATHENA 1, ATHENA 2, and ATHENA 3, with the first two chaired by Dr. Harilaos Koumaras and Dimitris Uzunidis from NCSR “DEMOKRITOS”.
Through its scientific contributions and continued support of the ATHENA Workshop, 6G-VERSUS strengthened its engagement with the European research community, promoting knowledge exchange and collaboration on emerging 6G technologies and their applications across different vertical sectors.
Link to the event: https://cloudnet2026.ieee-
