Scientists:	Sebastian Gallenmüller, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Carle
Duration:	01.11.2026 – 31.10.2028
Funding:	Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)

Motivation

Evaluating innovative data processing methods or novel communication technologies requires suitable test platforms. However, because shared infrastructures are scarce, researchers frequently rely on separate compute clusters and isolated lab networks. Each institution invests in its own expensive hardware and manages it independently. This isolation leads to duplicated effort, high costs, and hinders the reproducibility of experiments, ultimately delaying the transfer of innovative research outcomes into socially relevant applications.

Objectives and Approach

Through pilot implementations, the project SLICES-DE-PILOT establishes the technical and organizational foundation for a digital research infrastructure dedicated to information and communication technologies. The platform is designed to enable shared access to computing and network resources. To achieve this, the team will initially interconnect several pilot sites (TUM Garching, TUM Heilbronn, University of Tübingen, University of Würzburg) and set up testbeds in a proof-of-concept, linking compute resources, high-speed networks, and specialized measurement equipment. The project is developing software to reserve resources, distribute them fairly, and monitor ongoing experiments. During technical testing of the design, the team will also evaluate the security, performance, and energy consumption of the pilot implementation under real-world scenarios. Each partner in SLICES-DE-PILOT further implements a blueprint, a reference experiment intended to be used across multiple research groups sharing common research interests:

• SLICES Security Blueprint
• SLICES Teaching Blueprint
• SLICES Benchmarking Blueprint
• SLICES Monitoring Blueprint

Innovations and Perspectives

The project creates the technical prerequisites for an open infrastructure accessible to companies, researchers, and students. This lays the groundwork for a larger research infrastructure (SLICES-DE) intended to expand to additional German sites after the project ends and to integrate into the European research infrastructures of the SLICES-RI initiative. In the long term, the project thus strengthens digital sovereignty, reduces costs, and opens up new market perspectives for communication technologies.

List of Partners

• Chair of Communication Networks (University of Tübingen)
• Chair of Communication Networks (University of Würzburg)