The High Frequency Campus Lab – HFCLab was inaugurated at the Politecnico di Milano. The new laboratory, headed by Prof. Antonio Capone and Prof. Umberto Spagnolini of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, aims to develop an open experimental platform dedicated to high-frequency radio access networks, including millimeter-wave frequencies exploited by 5G technology.

The goal is to create an environment that favors the collaboration between university research and businesses, as well as to attract students interested in telecommunications. HFCLab has the institutional patronage of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy as well as the collaboration of the Ugo Bordoni Foundation, and the Lombardy Regional Agency for the Protection of the Environment.

The first operational nucleus of the laboratory was set up thanks to the contribution of Athonet, Fastweb and Huawei, with the collaboration of researchers from the Telecommunications research area of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano. At the moment the network is based on a segregated network architecture similar to Non-Public Networks, consisting of a Radio Access Network made up of antennas, radio units and baseband units from Huawei, a 5G Core Network on a general hardware platform from Athonet and on the use of frequencies in the Fastweb 26 GHz band. The application and measuring instruments part is managed by the Politecnico di Milano.

The laboratory is open to the contribution of new members who can participate in the development of the technological platform and of the tested applications. HFCLab also collaborates with the Politecnico di Milano 5G & Beyond Observatory to share the opportunities offered by high-frequency access technologies. Furthermore, the laboratory is part of the Extended Partnership on “Future Telecommunications” managed by the Restart Foundation and financed by the NRRP.

One of the research lines of the laboratory concerns open source solutions for Radio Access Networks and Core Networks, which today represent one of the most promising directions for the development of research in the wireless field. Another line of research concerns the incremental exploration of different application scenarios, including Fixed Wireless Access, mobile access in extended or dedicated coverage scenarios and vehicular connectivity and smart road applications. Finally, the laboratory will also work on intelligent propagation environments.