The Second Global 5G event took place in Rome, Italy in November
Industry executives representing five of the leading wireless associations worldwide shared their knowledge at the Second of the bi-annual Global 5G events in Rome on 9 and 10 November 2016.
The latest 5G developments in 5G research, standardisation, spectrum options, and Roadmaps were discussed.
5G PPP projects were very active there and showcased latest innovations.
This sixth edition of the 5G PPP newsletter covers the following topics:
Main outputs of the Second Global 5G Event in Rome
The printed edition of the European 5G Annual Journal
Announcements of upcoming events and workshops
The Second Global 5G Event in Rome
The 5G-IA, the leading 5G visionary organisation in Europe, organised the Second Global 5G Event together with peer associations from the Americas, Japan, South Korea, and China to work towards global solutions for 5G.
During this two-day event, government representatives from Brazil,China, Italy, Japan, the United States, South Korea and Sweden, high representatives from the European Commission, association leaders, more than 250 industry experts as well as more than 30 universities and research centers participated and shared the latest Research and Development achievements.
For those who could not be there, event presentations are online. After a strong welcome address by Mr. Antonello Giacomelli, Under-Secretary of the Minister of Economic Development for Communications, in which he committed Italy to reach rapidly the availability of 700MHz band, and to realize 5G tests in 3 main cities of the country, Mr Giuseppe Recchi, Executive Chairman of TIM, expressed the need of avoiding fragmentation in view of reaching a globally harmonized 5G standard. Mr Roberto Viola, Director General DG CONNECT at the European Commission, welcomed an open cooperation with our international partners and highlighted the investments planned in the 5G PPP programme, insisting on the involvement of vertical industries, including automotive, health and media.
The “SMEs Expertise and Skills in the 5G Domain”and the European 5G Annual Journal were distributed on the spot (click on the name of the brochure/Journal to view).The “SME Expertise and Skills in the 5G Domain” brochure shows offerings and capabilities from selected European Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in a 5G and related domains. It offers an excellent overview to organisations and larger companies from Europe and from all other continents seeking to cooperate with SMEs in 5G.
In addition, 5G PPP projects took the opportunity to present demos on their booths, for example:
5G-CROSSHAUL showcased 5 demos validating the concept of integrated fronthaul and backhaul. These included a next generation fronthaul interface from partner CND carried along with backhaul traffic over millimeter wave transport from InterDigital. This same fronthaul traffic was also demonstrated over LED-based optical wireless from Fraunhofer HHI. A silicon photonic ROADM switching device from Ericsson was also shown for enabling cost-effective multiplexing of time sensitive fronthaul and backhaul. Network applications were also demonstrated over 5G-Crosshaul management and orchestration system such as energy monitoring and management from Nextworks and SDN-based broadcasting from Visiona.
CHARISMA exhibited 3 main demonstrations: ultra low latency capability (with a fun demo applying the issue of low-latency to driverless cars), distributed security features (inc. virtualised firewall) and open access (multi-tenancy). These demos attracted a lot of attention from other delegates and 5G PPP project participants.
FLEXGWARE showed improvements in terms of reduced cost and footprint for the analogue hardware. It also exhibited signal architectures for improved transmission rates and spectral efficiency and finally increased flexibility and reduced energy techniques based on context aware resource allocation.
SUPERFLUIDITY will instantiate and provision network functions and services on-the-fly, run them anywhere in the network, move them transparently to different locations, and make them portable across multiple hardware platforms. SUPERFLUIDITY presented two demonstrations: 1) rapid deployment/reconfiguration of a software-defined wireless network (C-RAN), integrated with Mobile Edge Computing, for efficient video delivery from the edge; 2) Demand-driven orchestration for 5G deployments. The SUPERFLUIDITY booth was visited by several delegates, including Mr. Roberto Viola and CEOs of major operators.
METIS-II showcased its visualization platform on dedicated laptops and on tablets. The tool is one of the main achievements of the project and functional to illustrate the innovations brought to the 5G RAN design. The booth was visited by many delegates including Mr. Roberto Viola and the top management of TIM (see picture below).
mmMAGIC showcased 5G mm-wave hardware demos on PAPR reduction for OFDM-based waveforms and also beamforming.mmMAGIC had a great attendance to its booth from the visitors and experts from all corners of the globe, including Deputy Head of Cabinet of European Commissioner G. Oettinger, Thibaut Kleiner and CEO of Telefónica I + D, David del Val Latorre.
SESAME showcased 2 demos. The objective was to show: (i) SESAME architectural elements and features; (ii) End-to-end (E2E) connectivity in the SESAME system; (iii) Integration of the main SESAME components: that is, professional Evolved Packet Core (EPC), an ARM-based computing platform and a commercial LTE small cell; (iv) Virtualization using an ARM-based computing platform, and; (v) Performance of an accelerated virtual switching solution. The 1st SESAME demo consisted of two parts: (i) An LTE small cell has been connected to an EPC so as to provide LTE connectivity. An ARM-based computing platform, running Virtual Network Functions, has been connected between the Small Cell and the EPC for offering local IP access. The 2nd SESAME demo consisted of an ARM micro-server, based on the NXP platform, running two KVM virtual machines and an accelerated virtual switching solution has been demonstrated.
Among many very interesting speeches, we have picked up four main topics for 5G: standardization, spectrum, main potential requirements/target architecture and main potential markets/verticals.
Standardization: Franck Mademann, 3GPP Architecture Working Group Chair, looked at 3GPP’s flexible 5G system architecture, giving delegates details of the phased approach being adopted by 3GPP. He emphasized how much effort will go in to 3GPP release 15, to ensure that it delivers the 5G Phase 1 system definition, including all that is needed for deploying a base system. His presentation included details of the group’s work on network slicing, the functional network architecture and on a Quality Service model that may bring what he described as “lighter QoS sessions”. Dino Flore, 3GPP Radio Area Network Chair indicated that the 3GPP submission for “IMT-2020” will include both the “New Radio of 5G” and LTE. He also echoed details on the 2-phase approach for 5G with the first specifications to be completed by September 2018 – for a subset of industry priorities. This will be followed by a full set of 5G specifications, addressing all of the identified use cases & requirements, by March 2020 (Release 16).
Spectrum:Takehiro Nakamura, Chairman of strategy & Planning Committee of 5G Mobile Communications Promotion Forum moderated the session 2 on day1 which focused on 5G spectrum. He highlighted spectrum candidate bands for Early 5G in the table below. Indeed harmonization is the key word for 5G spectrum but will be difficult to achieve for all world regions. Colin Langtry, from ITU, reminded delegates of bands under study for WRC-19 (24-86 GHz) while Jonas Wessel, RSPG Vice Chair underlined bands proposed for Europe in the RSPG Opinion (700 MHz, 3.4-3.8 GHz primary band, 24.5-27.5, 31.8-33.4, 40.5-43.5 GHz).
Main potential requirements/target architecture. Advanced Heterogeneous Networks and network Softwarisation were the two main technologies shared by delegates to realize key concepts.
Main potential markets. Mr. Andreas Müller, Senior Expert and Project Manager, Bosch emphasized the need of a close cooperation between telecom companies and verticals to leverage full potential of 5G. Mr Yang Fangyi, Vice President, China Telecom Technology Innovation Center conceded vertical applications were a new area for China Telecom that require “work with all partners to push it”.
All challenges from the China point of view were synthetized in the following slide by Ms. Wang Zhiqin, Vice Chair of IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group:
In addition to presentations, Commissioner Oettinger stated that 5G was a global adventure, as reflected by this international cooperation. He emphasized the importance to plan 5G trials early 2017, as indicated in the 5G Action Plan, through 5G PPP. To that purpose, the European Commission would be a “bridge-maker” if needed. At last, Mr. Oettinger released names of winners of ‘Collaborative Spectrum Sharing” and “Breaking the Optical Transmission Barriers” who were awarded the first Horizon Prizes (500,000 EUR for each team). Horizon Prizes are challenge prizes (also known as ‘inducement’ prizes) which offer a cash reward to whoever can most effectively meet a defined challenge. They act as an incentive for innovation. They prescribe the goal but not who the innovator should be or how the goal should be achieved. The 500,000 EUR award for work on collaborative spectrum sharing went to a team led by the Centre for Telecommunications Research of King’s College London (UK), whose distributed spectrum sharing solution could improve spectral efficiency by more than 30% in certain cases, like in the sub-GHz frequency spectrum The 500,000 EUR award for optical transmission went to the PHOTONMAP project led by Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark. Their solution is based upon ultra-high capacity fibres.
A selection of key quotes at the event
“3 pillars for 5G take-off: global standard, policy support and consistent investment”
-Giuseppe Recchi, TIM Executive chairman
“We need to ensure European digital leadership in 5G” “5G is more than a technology: it will provide a new digital mind-set”. “We need to develop EU leaderships in vertical domains. Excellent research & innovation is key”
-Günther Oettinger, EU Commissioner for digital Economy and Society
“5G is about transforming networks and industries”
-Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas
“Joint research and trial will be effective waysto promote the global unified 5G standards and harmonized spectrum.”
-Wang Zhiqin, Vice Chair of IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group
“5G will drive industrial and societal transformation & economic growth in Europe from 2020 and beyond”
-Jonas Wessel, RSPG vice chair
Save the date!
The Second Global 5G Event was a great success. Dr. Kohei Sato, Secretary General of 5G Mobile Communications Promotion Forum, announced the Third Global 5G Event. It will be held in Tokyo (Japan) on May 24-25, 2017 with Wireless Technology Park.
The Third Global 5G Event to take place in Tokyo, Japan in May 2017
As with the Second edition, this Global 5G Event will run over two days. Supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (tbc), it is organized by the 5GMF in Tokyo on May 24-25, 2017 with Wireless Technology Park (WTP 2017).
The printed European 5G Annual Journal has been handed out in Rome!
The first European 5G Annual Journal was released in July 2016. An updated version was finalized in October and released online. A printed edition was distributed at the 2nd Global 5G Event in Rome on 9-10 November, 2016. The aim of this first edition is to highlight and disseminate European achievements in the context of global progress in the 5G PPP domain. It presents an analysis of the 5G ecosystem evolution over the past year. It has been prepared by Euro-5G with inputs from the 5G PPP projects.
The 38th annual DigiWorld Summit had as its central theme: The Internet of Trust. It has been an opportunity to engage in a meaningful international debate over digital trust issues – starting with security and privacy – which have become major sources of concern for all of the ecosystem’s stakeholders.
mmMAGIC @2nd International Workshop on mmW5G San Francisco, USA – 19 March 2017
5G NORMA and COHERENT 5G PPP projects jointly organise a workshop on Virtualised Coordinated Spectrum Access for 5G Communications Systems at ISWCS 2016. This workshop aims to bring the concepts of dynamic allocation of Spectrum to network services and virtualisation together and explore if and how novel architectures and technologies based on virtualisation can increase the efficiency in Spectrum utilisation.
METIS-II, FANTASTIC-5G, mmMAGIC, 5G-Crosshaul, Flex5Gware @ 2nd International Workshop on 5G RAN design Washington DC, December 8, 2016
This workshop is jointly organised by 5G PPP projects METIS-II, FANTASTIC-5G, mmMAGIC, 5G-Crosshaul and Flex5Gware, and aims to foster the discussion and consensus building on key 5G RAN design aspects. The workshop will provide the opportunity to share and discuss results from the mentioned projects and other 5G research activities, and to elaborate on how the 5G RAN design shall be best taken forth in the recently started 3GPP standardization.
