Newsflash

New 5G IA Members and Call for Membership for ‘Smart Networks and Services’ Association

• Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) – https://aioti.eu– as ‘Full Association Member’
• Public Safety Communications Europe (PSCE) – https://www.psc-europe.eu– as ‘Full Association Member’
• GRADIANT (Galician Research Center in Advanced Telecommunications) – https://www.gradiant.org/en/ – as ‘Full Research Member’
• Eurescom GmbH – https://www.eurescom.eu/home.html– as ‘Full SME Member’

As the Horizon 2020 framework programme comes to an end and the new Horizon Europe framework programme launches, the 5G IA, as the private side representative of the 5G PPP, is preparing for the evolution of the 5G activities into the Smart Networks and Services contex, which will set the foundations for 6G. Information is available at https://5g-ia.eu/sns-horizon-europe/.

An ‘Open Letter’ from the Chairman of the Governing Board of the 5G IA, with an invitation to organisations (including Associations) and enterprises to join the new initiative, is available here.

Existing 5G IA Members will automatically retain membership of the evolved 5G IA, which will manage from the private side the Smart Network and Services partnership.

Phase 3.1 Key Achievements

Phase 3.1 Key Achievements from the 5G PPP include over 100 highlighted results from projects in Phase 3 under 20 program level achievements.

In continuation of the 5G PPP Phase 2 “Key Achievements”, and the recent list of “Key achievements v3.0”, the list now presents an updated catalog, i.e., “Key achievements v 3.1” considering the latest accomplishments of the 5G PPP Phase 3.4 “5G Long Term Evolution” projects and additional breakthroughs of some of Phase 3.3 “Advanced 5G Validation trials across multiple vertical industries” projects.

In total, more than 100 achievements have been reported that have been grouped in 11 different categories: 1-Performance Evaluation, 2-Cellular systems, Functional, Logical & Physical Architecture 3-Radio Access Network 4-Fronthaul, Backhaul and MetroHaul, 5-Technology Enablers 6-Network Management and Orchestration of services 7-Software Networks 8-Security, Privacy, Resilience 9-Services Platforms and Programming Tools NetApps 10-Verticals Experimentation, Trials and Pilots 10.1- Industry 4.0 10.2- Agriculture and agrifood 10.3- Automotive 10.4- Transport and Logistics 10.5 Smart Cities and Utilities 10.6- Public safety 10.7- Smart(air)Ports 10.8-Energy 10.9- eHealth & Wellness 10.10- Media & Entertainment, Tourism  and 11- Business, Standardization and Regulation.

As this version is based on version 3.0, key achievements from phase II projects (all of them completed by the end of 2020) have been kept in list but marked in red in the following figure so to provide a better understanding of the areas Phase 3 is currently covering.

Compared to the previous version, the new list of key achievements v3.1 illustrates that the introduction of ICT-20 projects has further pushed the research activities in all technological domains. This is to be expected as the 5G PPP Phases and the related pre-structuring model have been designed in such a way to allow the promotion of 5G in verticals and at the same time the further investigation of topics related to the evolution of 5G.

Find additional details on phase 3.1 Key Achievements here.

5G IA participated in the DG CONNECT / EIB study “Accelerating the 5G transition in Europe: how to boost investments in transformative 5G solutions”

This study discusses with “the fifth genetration” of telecommunication systems, or 5G, how its roll-out will be one of the most critical building blocks of the European digital economy and society in the next decade. The transformative properties of this technologies were examined. How Europe can remain a relevant, competitive and strategically autonomous player on the global scene was also explored. The study was mentioned during the European 5G conference.

The study has been prepared by the DG CONNECT of the European Commission with the participation of 5G IA. The document is available here.

Key findings from the European 5G conference

Pearse O’Donohue, Director for Future Networks in the European Commission, DG CONNECT, said “there has been progress” in the EU on 5G “but not enough” based on goals defined in the 5G Action Plan back in 2016. He also mentions that the European Commission is currently working on a new Action Plan, to be presented soon.

Peter Stuckmann, Head of Unit, Future Connectivity Systems at the European Commission, did not disclose any details on the Action Plan v2 but insisted on goals, which “have been useful”. He also expects the next goals to be again on spectrum assignments, especially on high bands, on deployment of small cells, and on vertical industries.

In Session 3, Dr. Colin Willcock, 5G IA Chairman of the Board, has assessed progress made since 2015 when the 5G PPP Research Partnership was initiated. He mentioned that 62 R&I projects have been launched so far, enabling more than 800 contributions to standardisation activities, over 1,300 scientific publications (Phases II and III) and over 180 key achievements  (More than 10 in Phase 1, 60 in Phase 2, more than 100 in phase 3 https://smart-networks.europa.eu/key-achievements-v3/, https://smart-networks.europa.eu/key-achievements-v3-1/). Alongside Bernard Barani, Deputy Head of Unit, Future Connectivity Systems at the European Commission, he also mentioned that “As the Horizon 2020 framework programme comes to an end and the new Horizon Europe framework programme launches, the 5G IA, as the industrial partner of the 5G PPP, is preparing for the evolution of the 5G activities into the Smart Networks and Services contex within the Horizon Europe framework programme”. The new “networks and services” package will lay the foundation of 6G in Europe. It has been earmarked for 900 million EUR of public funding (for 1.8 billion EUR of PPP funding in total) over the 2021-2027 budget period.

Harald Gruber, Head of the Digital Economy division at the Projects Directorate of the European Investment Bank (EIB) stated that the required investments to reach the build-out targets as agreed by European policymakers amounted to 384 billion EUR until 2025 (of which 126 billion EUR for the Digital Agenda for Europe, 65 billion EUR for 5G connectivity and 94 billion EUR for rural connectivity). He also acknowledged that investment requirements were very high – EIB’s total loan amounted to 2,965 billion EUR while investments reached 8.6 billion EUR – but that resources could be made available with appropriate financial instruments. Teresa Czerwińska, Vice President at the EIB mentioned a report urging on a major funding increase to help SMEs, new entrants in virtualised and disaggregated value chains and to secure positions of leading European stakeholders (Nokia and Ericsson).

This major theme of homegrown infrastructure and services, under the banner of digital sovereignty and green industrial change, was of course in everybody’s mind.

White Paper on “Edge Computing for 5G Networks”

Moreover, the white paper provides an in-depth analysis of Edge solutions that have been selected, deployed, and validated by 17 different EU funded 5G PPP projects.

You can download the White Paper here.

5G PPP Webinar: New 5G Core Technologies Innovation Projects

On February 16, the 5G Core Technologies Innovation webinar took place with the aim to present the 8 new 5G Core Technologies projects (COREnect, 5G-LOGINNOV, 5G-RECORDS, Affordable5G, 5GMETA, DRAGON, FUDGE-5G and Int5Gent) joining the 5G PPP to accelerate innovation in the development and take-up of 5G. All of the projects were selected for funding under the 5G PPP ICT-42-2020 call: 5G-PPP 5G Core Technologies innovation. These new projects started in the second half of 2020.

The projects presented their programmes with a short introduction from the European Commission and the 5G IA. Over 300 people registered for this event and the participation peaked at 150 simultaneous participants.

On the COREnect side, prof. Gerhard Fettweis explained the COREnect project and the problem of technological sovereignty in 5G and beyond, the project objectives, provide details on the project partners. The project methodology and the COREnect interactions with other communities were also covered.

Irene Alepuz, project manager deputy of the 5G-RECORDS project, presented the overview of the 5G-RECORDS project, highlighting the main goals, key enablers and requirements for each one of the three 5G-RECORDS use cases: live audio production, multiple camera wireless studio and live immersive media content production.

You can download and read all the presentations here.

5G Records White Paper: Low Latency 5G for Professional Audio Transmission

5G RECORDS (5G key technology enableRs for Emerging media COntent pRoDuction Services) held a webinar on 5G content production on 11 February @IEEE BTS Pulse. 5G RECORDS aims at exploring the opportunities which new 5G technology components bring to the professional audiovisual content production, including Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE). Three use cases will be demonstrated in the project: live audio production, a multi-camera wireless studio and live immersive media production.

The session explored the opportunities and challenges of 5G for the professional audio-visual content production industry. The session started with a presentation of the activities led by the European Broadcasting Union on 5G content production, which has successfully engaged in 3GPP Release-17 5G standardization. It continued with presentations from Ericsson and Nokia about key 5G technology enablers for professional content production, such as network slicing for guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), Non-Public Networks, millimetre wave frequencies, edge and cloud computing, etc. The on-going technical work in 5G-RECORDS to enable the three use cases was presented, and the session concluded with an open panel discussion.

Source: 5G Technology Enablers for Content Production – Part I, Thorsten Lohmar, Ericsson and 5G RECORDS

Presentations are available here.

INSPIRE-5Gplus presentation at ETSI ISG ZSM plenary meeting

The strong alignment of the INSPIRE-5GPlus system with ZSM architecture principles and services opens up new standardization opportunities, based on a closed collaboration between INSPIRE-5GPlus and ETSI ISG ZSM. Examples of opportunities that were discussed during and after the meeting include contributions to existing security related work items (ZSM-010) or the creation of new ones, focused on the multi-dimensional security management aspects that are being developed in the INSPIRE-5GPlus project.

5GZORRO: AI-driven Zero-touch Operations, Security and Trust in Multioperator 5G Networks

The 5G Architecture Working Group as part of the 5G Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) Initiative, focuses on the 3rd stage of 5G evolution, and it is looking at capturing novel trends and key technological enablers for the realization of the 5G architecture.

It is also targeting, in a harmonized way, the architectural concepts developed in various projects and initiatives, not limited only to 5G PPP projects, to provide a consolidated view on the technical directions for the architecture design in the 5G era.

The 5GZORRO presentation received great interest and the final congratulations from WG members. The project raised many expectations regarding the implementation part; which is now in its ongoing stages.

5G-SMART webinar: “5G TSN deployment model and time synchronization aspects”

The webinar presented how 5G can be deployed together with TSN for industrial automation, by looking into specific manufacturing use cases. These include advanced industrial robotics controlled from the cloud, communication between industrial controllers, the centralized control of an AGV fleet, and adaptive production based on real-time monitoring of the production process. Further, 5G time synchronization deployment aspects were presented.

1st 5G EVE Learn and Drive

The two-hour Learn and Drive event showed how to get exposure, virtually meet, and get essential information to develop potential collaborations with some of the major industrial players in the 5G Ecosystem. Also, SMEs got the chance to discuss potential use cases and future collaborations in direct contact with key European industry players after the event.

EU to set up new European Partnerships and invest nearly 10 billion EUR for the green and digital transition

The proposed Institutionalised European Partnerships aim to improve EU preparedness and response to infectious diseases, develop efficient low-carbon aircraft for clean aviation, support the use of renewable biological raw materials in energy production, ensure European leadership in digital technologies and infrastructures, and make rail transport more competitive.

The European Partnerships are approaches provided by Horizon Europe, the new EU research and innovation programme (2021-2027).

More information about these Partnerships here.