5TONIC Lab becomes key European 5G project test site

Takes big slice of €8m EU-backed 5G-Transformer project. Develops proof-of-concept for vertical market applications

14 December 2018

The 5TONIC co-creation laboratory in Madrid has been confirmed as one of only four European test beds responsible for creating and testing proof-of-concept demonstrations for the EU-backed 5G-Transformer project.

The €8m EU project will define and develop 5G mobile network ‘slices’ aimed at supporting vertical market industries – particularly focusing on low latency applications of the technology. The creation of separate, flexible, network slices able to serve specific requirements and share resources across multiple domains is a key distinguishing feature of next generation 5G networks.

The 5TONIC laboratory in Madrid – which was co-founded by Telefonica and IMDEA Networks and now comprises ten collaborating companies – will focus on accelerating the deployment of 5G network slices by helping to develop proof of concept demonstrations across several key vertical market sectors including e-Health, Automotive, Cloud Robotics and Media & Entertainment.

The EU’s 5G-TRANSFORMER consortium comprises some 18 partners including leading international vendors (NEC, Ericsson, Nokia, InterDigital), major global operators (Orange, Telefonica), interested vertical market industries and research institutes and universities such as University Carlos III of Madrid.

The 5G-TRANSFORMER project looks to enable standard technological frameworks for network slicing using Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN), and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). The objective is to federate multiple domains and infrastructure providers into a single platform where multiple transport slices can be created and managed.

Trials are scheduled throughout 2019 across the four 5G-TRANSFORMER test beds located across Europe. The 5TONIC test site will take the lead for most of the vertical-market proof of concept demonstrations.

More info about 5G-TRANSFORMER (5G Mobile Transport Platform for Verticals): http://5g-transformer.eu/