UC3M and IMDEA Networks commit to 5G development at Mobile World Congress 2018

27 February 2018

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and IMDEA Networks researchers present at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 recent innovations stemming from several joint European projects aimed to develop 5G networks.

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“The combination of advances in 5G networks will transform today’s reality into a ‘connected reality’, in which all objects and persons will be interconnected. 5G networks will connect over six billion people, which includes all of the world’s inhabitants, and an additional 1,000 objects for each person,” states Arturo Azcorra, a Full Professor at UC3M’s Telematics Engineering Department and the Director of IMDEA Networks Institute. At MWC 2018 he is presenting some of the advances achieved within the framework of 5G-Coral, 5G-Crosshaul, 5G-Transformer, three European research projects within the Horizon2020 program, coordinated at UC3M. Azcorra will speak about them at the Mobile World Capital Barcelona on February 28.

Other European research projects related to 5G will also be represented at this world mobile technology congress. The researchers of 5G-MoNArch, whose technical director, Albert Banchs, is a Professor in the UC3M department of Telematics Engineering and Deputy Director of IMDEA Networks, will give a multimedia presentation on this technology’s potential.  In this last phase of the project they have prepared two demonstrations of 5G networks running on two prototypes: one in the port of Hamburg (Germany), about a service for real-time and fault-free maritime traffic control; and the other in the city of Turin (Italy), in the Palazzo Madama, focused on the distribution of interactive content capable of meeting the demands of sudden increases in data traffic.  For that purpose, they have already defined a 5G network architecture to make efficient use of so-called ‘network slicing’ techniques, which enable diverse operators to provide different types of service (mobile telephony, augmented reality, sensor networks, live 4K videos, autonomous driving) over the same infrastructure.

In addition, another of the European projects in which the University is participating, 5G Norma, will also be introduced at MWC 2018. “We are trying to orchestrate different technologies in the most efficient way possible, so that the greatest possible number of services can be executed on the same platform, without variations in any of them (for example, high video traffic load) affecting the performance of the rest (for example, the distribution of information among vehicles),” explains Pablo Serrano, from the UC3M Telematics Engineering Department.

These are five of the ten projects in the area of 5G technology with which UC3M participates in the European program Horizon2020. The other five projects related to this technology are the following: FIWIN5G, FLEX5Gware, 5G Exchange, 5GINFIRE and 5RANGE. In fact, UC3M and IMDEA Networks are pioneers in 5G research in Spain through their joint collaboration in the first laboratory of 5G excellence, 5TONIC, created in 2015.

The Mobile World Congress is the largest event worldwide for the mobile communication industry.  Organized by GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications), it is held from February 26 to March 1 at Mobile World Capital Barcelona. This congress aims to promote the mobile and digital transformation of society in three areas: acceleration of innovation through digital entrepreneurship, digital transformation of industry, and empowerment of citizens through the use of digital technologies.