Samsung and Verizon conduct integrated sensing trial at Dallas soccer event

Samsung Electronics and Verizon have completed an Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) trial during a soccer fan event in Dallas, Texas.

The trial ran over a virtualized network and was designed to demonstrate how sensing capabilities can provide real-time intelligence for large-scale events. The companies did not disclose the exact location, but said the test validated ISAC in a live, real-world setting.

Combining communication and sensing

ISAC is intended to expand mobile networks beyond data transmission by combining high-speed communications with environmental sensing in a single infrastructure. The technology is expected to be an important component of 6G networks.

Samsung described the test as one of the industry's first practical implementations of a key 6G technology. The company said it demonstrated how software-driven network architectures can create infrastructure that perceives, interprets, and responds to its surroundings.

Samsung integrated its commercial AI-powered virtualized radio access network (vRAN) and virtualized core (vCore) with an ISAC application. These components were deployed on its Network in a Server (NIS), an end-to-end, software-driven Edge-AI platform that combines network functions and accelerated computing in one server.

This configuration allowed the ISAC application to use connectivity from a 5G network without additional equipment. The NIS was connected to a Verizon Cell-on-Wheels (COW) equipped with a sensing receiver supporting 40MHz of spectrum in the Consumer Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band.

The server analyzed the incoming data in real time. Its accelerated computing resources extracted insights that were displayed as a crowd-density heatmap, which changed at near-real-time speed to represent people's movements.

Samsung said the system used wireless signals to identify crowded areas within the venue automatically. Potential applications include helping attendees find less congested food stalls, enabling event organizers to monitor crowd distribution, and assisting security personnel in identifying emerging risks such as overcrowding.

Industry activity around 6G sensing

The trial follows an earlier test by AT&T and Ericsson, a Samsung competitor, involving drone detection over a 5G network at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Yago Tenorio, chief technology officer and senior vice president of technology development at Verizon, said the company's investment in flexible, software-driven vRAN architecture enabled it to test ISAC and other 6G concepts on existing infrastructure. He said the trial showed how future networks could perceive and interact with their surroundings in support of venue management and public safety.

Ji-Yun Seol, executive vice president and head of product strategy for the networks business at Samsung Electronics, said Verizon's early adoption of software-driven, AI-powered vRAN created a foundation for the ISAC test and other future 6G use cases.

The trial was announced as Verizon expanded its 6G Innovation Forum. New members include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz, and Viavi Solutions. Samsung is a founding member of the forum.

The forum is focused on testing new 6G use cases, spectrum bands, and bandwidth, as well as supporting alignment with global standards organizations such as 3GPP.