FiberCop: Innovation Hub for future networks grows in Southern Italy

Southern Italy is positioning itself to become one of the country’s leading laboratories for the development of next-generation digital infrastructure. FiberCop is strengthening its presence in the region, steadily building an innovation hub devoted to the networks of the future, combining expertise, research, industry and high-tech infrastructure.

A Digital Twin to design and manage increasingly intelligent networks

The latest step in this journey takes shape in Naples, through a new collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II, aimed at developing architectures, models and platforms based on the multi-domain Digital Twin concept. The goal is to create an advanced and dynamic digital representation of increasingly complex and interconnected infrastructure, capable of integrating fibre-optic networks, cloud and Edge Cloud, 5G and future 6G mobile networks, quantum communication systems and cybersecurity components.

Digital Twins were the focus of FiberCop’s plenary presentation at the international MNC 2026 conference held in Naples in July, organised by IEEE and the University of Naples Federico II and dedicated to measurement in telecommunications systems.

Through the use of artificial intelligence, simulation and automated orchestration, Digital Twins make it possible to predict infrastructure behaviour, optimise resource use, automate network operations and accelerate the development of new digital services. The expected outcomes of the joint research include proposals for national and international technical standards for the use of Digital Twins in the design and management of telecommunications networks, giving users safer, better performing and more resilient networks.

The collaboration with Federico II is part of a broader strategy aimed at expanding FiberCop’s Innovation Hub in Southern Italy and turning the region into a distributed innovation ecosystem, where universities, research centres, businesses and digital infrastructure can work together to test the technologies that will shape the next generation of networks.

In this process, Q-SUD and SUNS also play a central role: two national research and innovation programmes that enable the transfer of skills and results developed within the major strategic partnerships of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to industrial applications.

From quantum computing to intelligent networks

Q-SUD stems from the integration of the skills and infrastructures developed by the national partnerships NQSTI, ICSC, and RESTART, with the aim of building an ecosystem in Southern Italy dedicated to quantum computation and communications. Within this programme, FiberCop aims to contribute to the development of solutions for the integrated orchestration of traditional and quantum networks, combining Digital Twins, artificial intelligence and automation for the predictive control of infrastructures distributed across terrestrial networks, cloud systems and quantum computing environments.

In parallel, FiberCop is involved in SUNS – Secure Ubiquitous Networks and Services, an initiative coordinated by the SERICS and RESTART Foundations and dedicated to the advancement and testing of technologies developed within the NRRP partnerships on cybersecurity and advanced telecommunications. Among other areas, the programme covers 5G and 6G networks, Edge Cloud infrastructures, industrial Internet of Things, digital resilience, and the security of critical infrastructures. Within SUNS, FiberCop is promoting the creation of an experimental Network Edge Cloud cluster in Southern Italy, designed to host research, validation, and testing activities on cybersecurity, Network Digital Twin, intelligent orchestration, and AI-native applications.

A distributed innovation hub in Southern Italy

FiberCop’s strategy for Southern Italy is not limited to a single site but aims to build a network of interconnected skills and infrastructures. Further enriching the landscape is the soon-to-be-activated Edge Cloud site in Palermo, which is set to become a demonstration and advanced experimentation hub for next-generation digital architectures.

Naples and Palermo thus represent two nodes in a broader innovation pathway, where university research, industrial experimentation, and technological infrastructures contribute to building an ecosystem capable of supporting the evolution of Italian networks.

Through these initiatives, FiberCop is launching the development of a platform where telecommunications, distributed cloud, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and quantum technologies can interact, find practical applications, and support a broad ecosystem of universities and research and innovation institutions active in Southern Italy.