Highlights from 5G PPP Demo and Exhibition Stands at ICT2018

Eleven 5G PPP phase 2 projects came together to showcase their latest achievements on 5G at ICT2018, 4-6 December in Vienna. Two demo stands, 5G In Action and 5GCity, showcased current achievements on the road to 5G across Europe, while the stand on 5G - Smart Connectivity, was located in the area for public private partnerships, offering a strategic location for new alliances with key stakeholders. 

5G In Action Demo Stand

The 5G In Action stand was a hive of activity with live demos running over the three days. 

5G-MEDIA: developing 3 use cases crucial for the multimedia industry: Tele-immersive Applications, Smart and Remote Media Production and Ultra High Definition (HD) over Content Delivery Network (CDN).  They demonstrated services and tools such as the 5G-MEDIA Software Development Kit, with tools for service validation and testing before deployment; Media Service MAPE loop, optimising the execution of media services; Function-as-a-Service capabilities; VIMs supported by the 5G-MEDIA platform.

NGPaaS: demonstratinng a “Cloud Native” End-to-End (E2E) mobile network (RAN 4G + CORE 5G) over a distributed cloud infrastructure EDGE/ CENTRAL/PUBLIC clouds e.g Amazon with Telco-grade capabilities (SCTP support in K8s, CNI).

5G-MONARCH: showing new opportunities for industry and the media through Network Slicing. 5G-MONARCH is also driving 5G in the Port of Hamburg as an example on a small scale of what 5G-enabled smart cities might look like. 

IoRL: improving 5G indoor connectivity and service delivery by combining mmWave and visible light communication. IoRL demonstrated a 5G link designed for the IoRL use cases with 200 MHz bandwidth and 100 nanoseconds latency.

5G-TRANSFORMER: bringing the network slice concept into 5G mobile transport networks for vertical industries like automotive, health, media and entertainment. 5G-TRANSFORMER demonstrated their vertical slicer, service orchestrator and mobile transport and computing platform.

SAT5G: developing a cost effective “plug-and-play” satcom solution for 5G to enable telcos and network vendors to accelerate 5G deployment across all geographies and multiple use cases. SAT5G showed work towards use cases across three main EU testbeds, two of which involving geostationary (GEO) and non-geostationary (MEO) in-orbit satellites.

5G-CORAL: driving international cooperation between Europe and Taiwan to deliver a convergent 5G multi-RAT access. Demonstrations include fog-assisted robotics and Multi-Rat IoT Gateway. Verticals include transport (high-speed train) and automotive (connected cars). 

5GTANGO:  ensuring the flexible programmability of 5G networks. The project demonstrated the benefits of its SONATA release 4.0, which includes novel technologies such as verification & validation platform for network services.

SLICENET: meeting the challenging requirementes from the management and control planes of network slicing for early and smooth adoption of 5G slices demonstrated in verticals like health (connected ambulance) and smart cities (remote water metering). 

MATILDA: realising a radical shift in sotfware development for 5G-ready applications, as well as virtual and physical network functions and network services. The project showed how it is validating and evaluating its 5G solution in verticals like public safety, smart cities (e.g. intelligent lighting systems), factory and industrial processes.  

The 5GCity Demo Stand

5GCity hosted its own highly successful and popular demo stand. The project is designing, developing, deploying and demonstrating, in operational conditions, a distributed cloud and radio platform for municipalities and infrastructure owners acting as 5G neutral hosts. 

The stand featured 6 demos: 5GCity Neutral Hosting; 5GCity Illegal waste dumping detection; 360° Video Distribution & Immersive Video Services Distribution; 5GCity MEC Orchestrator & VIM IoT; Video Acquisition & Production; Mock-up Lamp post.

The stand also attracted visitors from the Austrian government, the press, senior management from the EC and 5G Infrastructure Association. 

Top posts on 5G PPP during ICT2018:

1. Top Mention: 5GCity recap of Day 1.

2. Top media Tweet: 5GCroCo, a phase 3 project for cross-border trials for connected cooperative and automated driving.

3. Top Tweet: signage of the Memorandum of Understanding between the 5G IA and the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO). The related LinkedIn post has also proved to be highly popular. 

Special thanks are owed to David Kennedy, Eurescom; Kieran Sullivan, Waterford Institute of Technology and Margherita Trestini, Martel Innovate