Newsflash March 2021
Latest 5G top news: towards 6G
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New Governing Board of the 5G IA |
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On 26th March 2021, the General Assembly of the 5G IA elected the following Members of the Governing Board of the 5G IA for a term of two years:
At the first meeting of the new Governing Board, Dr. Colin Willcock was re-elected as Chairperson of the Governing Board of the 5G IA, and Dr. Hugo Tullberg, was re-elected as Vice-Chaiperson of the Governing Board of the 5G IA and re-appointed as Treasurer of the Association. The 5G IA Governing Board includes Members from Industry, Research, SMEs and ICT Associations. In addition to the continuation of activities related to the 5G Public-Private Partnership, the Governing Board will keep working on the preparation of the ‘Smart Networks and Services’ Partnership under Horizon Europe.
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The Governing Board of the 5G IA recently approved 14 new Members |
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The Governing Board of the 5G IA recently approved 14 new Members (i.e. 3 from Industry, 2 from Associations, 6 from Research, 2 from SMEs, 1 Associate 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.
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Europe moves towards 6G |
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| The European Commission has adopted a legislative proposal for the upcoming European partnership on Smart Networks and Services (SNS) towards 6G. The proposal for the Joint Undertaking on Smart Networks and Services (SNS) towards 6G, adopted late February by the Commission, is part of the Single Basic Act establishing the set of nine Joint Undertakings under Horizon Europe. There is an earmarked 900 million EUR of Commission funding, to be matched through co-funding by industry. The proposal will now be discussed among Member States in the Council with a planned launch later this year.
In early March 2021, Peter Stuckmann, Deputy Director of Future Networks in the European Commission, published a blog in relation to the legislative proposal. The points dealt with in the blog are as follows:
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Agreement on the EU Connectivity Toolbox |
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 On 25 March 2021, the Member States, in close cooperation with the Commission, agreed on a Union-wide Connectivity Toolbox, pursuant to the Connectivity Recommendation of 18 September 2020. The Toolbox consists of a set of best practices that are considered as the most efficient in allowing and encouraging operators to roll out very high capacity networks.
The best practices will help network operators to reduce the cost of gigabit broadband deployment and Member States to adopt an efficient approach for ensuring timely and investment-friendly access to 5G spectrum to mobile operators and other users of spectrum, including for industrial applications. Connectivity has supported citizens, businesses and public administrations through the pandemic, it will be an essential pillar of the recovery. The swift implementation of the Connectivity Toolbox will enable Member States to fully exploit the potential of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Earlier this month the Commission presented a Communication on Europe’s Digital Decade that sets out the aim to connect all European households with gigabit speeds and to ensure 5G coverage for all populated areas in the EU as well as major transport routes. The Connectivity Toolbox will continue playing a fundamental role as the EU steps into the Digital Decade. Two types of measures are suggested:
The Member States are committed to start implementing the Toolbox as soon as possible. As a next step, according to the timeline laid out in the Connectivity Recommendation, Member States should prepare and share with the Commission by 30 April 2021 their national roadmaps to implement the Toolbox, timely matching the finalisation of the Member States´ recovery and resilience plans.
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5G PPP Webinar: Europe accelerates towards 6G |
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 This webinar gave the floor to the 9 new 5G-PPP Smart Connectivity beyond 5G projects. These projects mostly started in January 2021 and are already developing exciting advances beyond 5G towards 6G.
The webinar was held in two parts, where all projects presented their vision of 6G in the first part as the motivation for their projects and the technical challenges they are addressing to move towards 6G in the second part. Over 500 participants registered for this event and the on-line participation peaked at 310 participants.
You can find the presentations of each project here.
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Submission of first Hexa-X deliverable – 6G Vision, use cases and key societal values |
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 This report describes the initial 6G Hexa-X vision including first use cases, services, and key value indicator aspects. It will guide the work in the project and will be disseminated globally. This vision will be periodically updated and evolved during the project. The content is based on the following activities: analysis of current trends in society and technology, creation and tuning of the underlying vision, and identification of relevant principles impacting business models.
Find the document on the Hexa-X website.
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5G EVE @SDOs Workshop on Testbeds Federations for 5G and Beyond |
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 5G EVE contributed to a workshop jointly organized by ITU, ETSI, and IEEE on 15-16 March 2021. On the first day, Veronica Sanchez Vega from 5G EVE partner Ericsson presented a contribution by 5G EVE partners in Session 2: ‘Technical Presentations on Trends in Testbeds for 5G & Beyond; Use Cases for Testbeds Federation; Emerging Hot Industry Requirements for Testbeds for AI Testing & Certifications and Open Networking Platform(s)’.
The contribution jointly prepared by Veronica Sanchez Vega, ETSI TC INT Rapporteur from 5G EVE partner Ericsson, Evangelos Kosmatos, 5G-PPP TMV Co-chair from 5G EVE partner Wings ICT Solutions, and Andrea Cattoni, 5G-PPP TMV Chair from Keysight had the title: ‘Methodologies for E2E Testing & Validation of Vertical Applications over 5G & Beyond networks, an ETSI TC INT Perspective on EC-funded 5GPP Projects Contributions to Standards’. The presentation described how the 5G trial projects in the 5G PPP have addressed the challenge of validating the business cases and applications of verticals and how the ETSI INT Technical Committee, in collaboration with those projects, is approaching the standardization of the methodologies for end-to-end testing and validation of vertical applications over 5G and Beyond networks. Further information is available on the Workshop Page.
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5G PPP Webinar: 5G Innovations for Verticals |
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 This webinar presented the 9 new 5G Innovations for Verticals with Third Parties projects that joined the 5G-PPP in the second half of 2020 to accelerate the take-up of 5G in the vertical sectors.
The webinar was held in two parts, where four projects presented in the first part and 5 in the second part, with a short introduction from the European Commission and the 5G IA to start. A total of 230 participants registered for this event and over 120 participants attended the webinar. These projects were selected for funding under the 5G PPP ICT-41-2020 call: 5G PPP 5G innovations for verticals with third-party services. Slide decks are available online here. |
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5G TOURS eHealth Webinars |
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 5G-TOURS organised two morning webinars on March 4, 2021.
The first webinar was about Remote Health Monitoring and emergency services powered by 5G. Presenters were Vera Stavroulaki and Nelly Giannopoulou (Wings ICT Solutions, Greece). The webinar showcased solutions for remote health monitoring of people, especially when already diagnosed with a critical disease still compatible with home care (e.g. some form of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, etc.). The main features offered, utilising the WINGS STARLIT platform, include: (a) real time remote health monitoring services of main vital-signs, and (b) quick, reliable notifications to users, family members and health care professionals in case of a health incident or a health emergency prediction. The Webinar also shortly showcased how, when an emergency has been identified, optimal ambulance routing is triggered to navigate the ambulance through areas with 5G coverage to ensure the provision of medical help on the go as well as timely patient transfer. You can find the full presentation video on YouTube.
The second webinar was about the usage of the 5G inside the hospital. Presenters were Mathieu Lagrange, Laurent Launay (b<>com, France), Guillaume Campion (AMA, France), and Nelly Besnard (University Hospital Center from Rennes, France). From the standardisation topics related to both 5G and DICOM, the webinar then went through the explanation of the UC8 architecture and features of 5G Tours Project, showing also related KPI and metrics. You can find the full presentation video on YouTube.
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StandICT.eu 2023 rolls out its EUOS – European Observatory for ICT Standardisation |
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 StandICT.eu 2023 announced the launch of the EUOS – European Observatory for ICT Standardisation. The new interactive platform is the evolved version of the Standards Watch (Funded under H2020 European Commission programme as a Coordination and Support Action CSA StandICT.eu [20182020]). The EUOS, pronounced “YOS”, will also monitor the global ICT Standardisation landscape, with its ultimate goal to provide to the community of ICT experts the most accurate coverage of relevant and timely ICT Standards, priorities, and needs that might affect the key ICT domains of the Digital Single Market and the EU ICT Rolling Plan for Standardisation. The EUOS goes one step further to provide an interactive platform, considered the Go-To place for all things related to ICT Standards all in one place, with a rewards scheme embedded.
For more information, the full press release is available here. Get involved to exchange, spread standardisation outcomes, and foster network in the European Observatory for ICT Standardisation website.
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Third “Towards TeraHertz Communications” workshop |
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 This 3rd “Towards Terahertz Communications” workshop took place on 12th March 2021. The event, organized by the “ICT Beyond 5G Cluster” (supported by European Commission), aimed at bringing together key actors currently working on, or having interest, in THz communications in order to explore future R&I challenges beyond 5G.The main goal of the workshop was to have an overview of the current state of the art of the research in this area, to discuss the main challenges still to be explored, to highlight key research directions for future R&I actions and to share opinions on the foreseen frequency bands which could be a good candidate to be supported by the EU in the global allocation exercise. The workshop was concluded by a panel session on the “Industrial Future of THz Comms”. The workshop flyer and agenda as well as some of the slides from the event are available here. |
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Launch of “The networking channel” |
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 “The NetWorking Channel” was launched on 8th March 2021 by the EC H2020 EMPOWER CSA together with the NSF PAWR Office and in cooperation with ACM Sigcomm. Acting as a catalyst between the global communities involved in future advanced networking activities, the initiative aims to continue this dialogue and build community in this unprecedented time and beyond, organizing a series of events as an online “channel” where the global networking research and education community will be able to meet and share.
The channel consist of 1 hour of webinars, panels, tutorials, virtual site visits, keynotes, and any other innovative forms of community interaction, and are organized on Wednesdays every two weeks (https://networkingchannel.eu/networking-events/). The first Webinar organized on 24th March 2021, included Nick McKeown (Stanford University) and addressed “Networking research and networking education: the path to 2030”.
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5GAA White Paper “Cooperation Models enabling deployment and use of 5G infrastructures for CAM in Europe” |
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 The White Paper, launched on 15th March, outlines five non-mutually exclusive options for ecosystem cooperation models relevant to 5G CAM (Connected and Automated Mobility) infrastructure deployment and use. 5GAA believes these options may bring even more benefits when combined. Building upon this first assessment, 5GAA considers that in the context of the large-scale introduction of advanced safety and automated driving use cases supported by C-V2X, a more integrated model involving all parties (vehicle manufacturers, road operators, communication service providers i.e. mobile network operators and neutral host infrastructure providers) should be considered as well as other services providers who will play an increasing role in the ecosystem e.g., location-based data marketplace, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), etc.
Read the full white paper here.
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2nd 5G EVE Learn and Drive |
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Online event – April 8
SMEs will get the chance to discuss potential use cases and future collaborations in direct contact with key European industry players after the event.
Target audience The online event is addressing startups and SMEs from all vertical sectors who are willing to learn about 5G EVE functionalities and who are interested in proposing ideas for innovative applications or services using the 5G EVE infrastructure. In addition, the event is addressing also all other stakeholders interested in learning more about the 5G EVE project and about opportunities related to 5G deployment. Go check the agenda and register here. |
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Hannover Messe 2021 |
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Hannover, Germany – April 12-16
Sessions on Industrial 5G are scheduled on Thursday, April 15.
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W4: 5G-enabled safety and support services for cooperative, connected and automated mobility |
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Helsinki, Finland – April 25
The aim of the workshop is to exploit these opportunities from several perspectives. First, the workshop distributes the latest results assessing the suitability of the currently standardised 5G functionalities in a variety of CCAM scenarios. Second, the workshop discusses the gaps identified in the existing 5G capabilities when it comes to the heterogeneous requirements, stemming from these scenarios, and offers new technological solutions to fill the identified gaps. Third, the workshop considers novel services and concepts that 5G networks would enable to improve the safety and performance of CCAM. The workshop is organised by the EU Horizon 2020 5G-HEART and Celtic-Next 5G-SAFE-Plus projects. More information about the event here. |
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2021 IEEE 93rd Vehicular Technology Conference |
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Helsinki, Finland – April 25-28
IEEE VTC2021-Spring will feature world-class plenary speakers, tutorials, technical as well as application sessions, and an innovative Industry Track, which will feature panels and presentations with industry leaders sharing their perspectives on the latest technologies. More information about the event here. |
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6GSymposium Europe – Shaping Industry & Society Beyond 5G |
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Online event – May 4
The 6GSymposium will explore the key questions around what 6G offers industry and society and how to get there. More information about the event here. |
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IEEE 5G Summit 2021 |
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Dresden, Germany – May 5
More information about the event and registration here. |
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IEEE 5G Virtual Summit – IEEE 5G for Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) |
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Online event – May 11-12
This first 5G for CAM conference will bring together a variety of EU-funded projects in the area of CAM, to share their experiences and present results with a view towards deployment. As Horizon 2020 is open to International participation, the event will also provide an opportunity to address a broader global perspective. Many 5G PPP projects will be present: Phase 3 5G PPP Automotive Projects 5G-CARMEN, 5G-CROCO and 5G-MOBIX and 5G for CAM Projects 5G-MED, 5G-RAIL, 5G-ROUTES will be there and will be accompanied by 5G-HEART a 5G PPP Phase 3, Part 3 Project on “5G HEalth AquacultuRe and Transport validation trials”, by 5G-LOGINNOV a 5G PPP Phase 3 Part 5 Project which envisions to use technologies to innovate logistics and ports, by Vital 5G a 5G PPP Phase 3 Part 6 Project on “Vertical Innovations in Transport And Logistics over 5G experimentation facilities” and by 5G-PICTURE a 5G PPP Phase 2 Project on “5G Programmable Infrastructure Converging disaggregated neTwork and compUte Resources” and by the H2020 5G-DRIVE project. More information about this event here. |
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EuCNC & 6G Summit 2021 |
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Online event – June 8-11
This conference is one of the most prominent communications and networking conferences in Europe, which efficiently brings together cutting-edge research and world-renown industries and businesses. The conference will focus on various aspects of 5G communications systems and networks, including cloud and virtualisation solutions, management technologies, and vertical application areas. It will target to bring together researchers from all over the world to present the latest research results, and it is one of the main venues for demonstrating the results of research projects, especially from successive European R&D programmes co-financed by the European Commission. More information about this event here. |
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European Research and Innovation Days |
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Online event – June 23 – 24
This year marks the start of Horizon Europe, our most ambitious EU research and innovation programme ever, and will be a decisive moment to strengthen our European Research Area. Cooperation in research and innovation is essential in our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and will pave the way to a greener and more digital future. The European Research and Innovation Days represent a unique opportunity to add your voice to the conversation. More information about this event here.
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MWC Barcelona 2021 |
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Barcelona, Spain – June 28 – July 1
The event is partially physically-held partially virtualy. The multi-layered safety approach includes prevention, protection, mitigation, monitoring and maintaining safety. Layers include frequent testing, contact tracing, touchless environments, re-vamped catering, occupancy monitoring, upgrades to facility infrastructure, increased medical staff – and personal commitments like adhering to social distancing.
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The next 
Safety and support services running on top of 5G network infrastructures have a great opportunity to facilitate cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM) for automotive and transport verticals in a variety of road conditions and operational environments. As the rollouts of commercial 5G networks continue all over the world, the increasing coverage and continuously evolving capabilities of the technology make it an ideal connectivity platform for a variety of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication scenarios. Critical network-based services enhancing the road traffic safety are able to exploit the ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) services offered by 5G. Other non-critical support services can rely on enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and massive machine-type communications (mMTC) services provided by 5G networks and facilitate the operation of the intelligent road transport systems as well as the comfort and wellbeing of the drivers and passengers.
The 2021 IEEE 93rd Vehicular Technology Conference: VTC2021-Spring will be held in Helsinki, Finland, 25 – 28 April 2021. This semi-annual flagship conference of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society will bring together individuals from academia, government, and industry to discuss and exchange ideas in the fields of wireless, mobile, and vehicular technology.
By 2030 and the dawn of commercial 6G the world’s climate aspirations, population, economy and work will have changed. If we are to deliver a smart, connected world that can meet the many demands on it, we need to start with all the stakeholders in the room and grow a complete set of viable solutions and business cases, not just a technology.
IEEE 5G++ Summit Dresden has become a well-known annual high-impact event that brings together industry leaders, innovators, and researchers from industry and academia to exchange ideas that will help to drive standards and rapid deployment of 5G++ technologies. It takes a holistic approach to 5G system design, ranging from silicon hardware, wireless interfaces, networks, edge clouds all the way up to Tactile Internet applications.
In the context of the European 5G Action Plan, the mobility vertical, spanning road, rail, water ways and coastal maritime, including a multi-modality component, has been singled out as a driver of the European Single Digital Market. The main societal objectives of Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) are Safer Rides (enhanced road safety), More Efficient Rides (lower emissions and reduced congestion) and Connected Rides (infotainment). But the impact of CAM on jobs and growth, as well as on global competitiveness, will be paramount. This will be achieved by building a complete ecosystem around infrastructure, equipment and services on top of 5G advanced connectivity, whilst mutualizing the huge investments in mobile and fixed broadband. Considerable effort and funding (from Horizon 2020) has been put into large-scale testing and validation, and even pre-deployment, of 5G namely in cross-border segments of Trans-European Transport Corridors. The objective is now to move towards large-scale deployment across the Continent.
EuCNC 2021 is the 30th edition of a successful series of a conference in the field of telecommunications, sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society and the European Association for Signal Processing, and supported by the European Commission. EuCNC 2021 intends to introduce 6G.
European Research and Innovation Days is the European Commission’s annual flagship Research and Innovation event, bringing together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and the public to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond.
The next MWC is scheduled from June 28 to July 1, 2021. The 2021 lead theme is “Connected Impact” as a reference to the virus.The editor of the 5G PPP newsflash on behalf of the Full5G Project is Carole Manero, IDATE DigiWorld, CS94167 – 34092 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. This document reflects -only the views of its authors.
