The entire organization of modern society is nowadays highly dependent on a high-speed and reliable telecom infrastructure. Recent pandemic times have further exposed the key role played by telecommunications, enabling critical services such as teleworking, remote healthcare and education. With the ever increase of internet traffic, novel communication technologies must be investigated, tested and be made available for the general benefit of our society.

In this regard, the Opt5G+ project aims to bridge the rapidly widening gap between radio and optical communications, which has been recently fostered by the advent of 5G and must be timely addressed in order to prevent a capacity breakdown in the optical transport network.

Opt5G+ will develop innovative optical communication approaches, providing reliable and high-capacity solutions for both wired (fiber-based) and wireless (free-space optics) beyond-5G deployments.

In order to guarantee an effective transfer of technology to the market, the Opt5G+ project will rely on an integrated experimental validation enabled by a realistic outdoor 5G testbed hosted by Instituto de Telecomunicações and University of Aveiro, thereby enabling a seamless convergence between radio and optical communications with end-to-end connectivity.