With data mobile traffic on the rise (it has increased 40-fold between 2014 and 2020) and the imminent arrival of the internet of things or IoT (50 billion connected devices are expected by 2025), telecom operators are being forced to rethink the architecture of their transport networks from data. The goal of operators is to use 5G technologies to offer their customers at the same time 20Gbps of wireless connectivity, communication latencies below 1 millisecond and connection densities exceeding 1 million devices per km2. 

The goal of project DRAGON is to demonstrate that it is possible to overcome the limitations imposed on operators by the high-capacity wireless technologies available today for their transport networks at data, by making the leap to the so-called D-band radio frequency (130-170GHz). 

During the implementation of DRAGON, innovative integrated circuits, antennas, integration solutions and key devices will be designed into the new equipment required by operators to exploit the benefits of radio frequency D-band. The resulting innovations from project will enable operators to move towards this scenario of broadband access, with minimal latency, anywhere, anytime, and to carry the information from the millions of devices that will form the IoT and radically change the way we live and do things. 

This project is framed within the European Horizon 2020 program and has a budget of 7.289.058 €. Together with Ceit, a member of the Basque Research&Technology Alliance (BRTA), 12 other telecommunications companies and leading technology centers in Europe are participating in the project consortium. DRAGON will last three years and the partners will start working on it on December 1.