Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 5-Alive (5G: A LeadershIp Vision for Europe)

Teaser

If we are to have the most advanced networks in the world being trialled in Europe by 2020, it is now critical that we build up the momentum within the European networking community, and awareness in the related application areas, for driving the infrastructure evolution...

Summary

If we are to have the most advanced networks in the world being trialled in Europe by 2020, it is now critical that we build up the momentum within the European networking community, and awareness in the related application areas, for driving the infrastructure evolution towards holistic 5G networks. This concept of holistic 5G networks is so much more comprehensive than any previous network evolution generation as it will fully integrate all network technologies fixed, mobile, satellite, optical etc., into a very dynamic software enabled infrastructure that is capable of supporting massive increases in availability, reliability and throughput while dramatically reducing the energy requirements for the provision of such advanced communications services at affordable cost everywhere. To stimulate and accelerate the achievement of this massive advance, the European commission and the European ICT industry, through the 5G-Infrastructure-Association, have launched the 5G-infrastructure-PPP as part of the Horizon2020 research programme.

What must be addressed between launch of the first call for projects within the 5G PPP and the start of the 5G-infrastructure-PPP, is how to position this European initiative at the forefront of the Global 5G activities and, in parallel, how to stimulate the European ICT community and the ICT service consumers to become the leading players in this evolution so they can secure success for Europe in the 5G domain. In order to achieve this, the 5-Alive project collaborated with the 5G-Infrastructure-Association and the NetWorld2020 ETP as cornerstones of this action. It was crucial that these communities discuss and develop the evolutionary strategy of the 5G PPP in terms of future roadmaps and in terms of contributing to the definition of future phases of the H2020 work programme(s) with relation to the 5G PPP.

The main 5-Alive project objectives defined in line with the overall project goal presented above are:
• To produce an updated roadmap for the holistic network perspective (including 5G) via the Networld2020 ETP,
• To actively promote and position the European 5G Initiatives as part of the leading global initiatives as well as introduce 5G PPP to vertical application sectors and create recommendations for future collaboration,
• To stimulate the involvement of the European ICT community and consumer sectors as drivers of evolution,
• To support the the 5G Infrastructure Association in producing strategies for later phases of the 5G PPP,
• To conduct a first exercise on mapping the 5G PPP KPIs to the research challenges to determine which topics will directly contribute to obtaining the foreseen infrastructure performance/feature improvements.

The approach of the 5-Alive project was to use an innovative mix of community and industrial support to produce the essential material and to perform an intensive communications programme. The project established effective processes to capture, synopsise and present frequent news updates on the activities of the European 5G initiative and ensure their widespread dissemination. The project work included a number of industrial players, in lead roles in both the NetWorld2020 ETP and the 5G Infrastructure Association contributing manpower to the project to ensure the investment is shared between industry and the EC, as a true reflection of the stakeholder interests in the European 5G-Infrastructure-PPP.

The project ran for one year (November 2014 – October 2015), to boost the 5G activities in the short- term before the kick-off of 5G project related activities under Horizon2020 ICT-14 and to position the 5G PPP initiative as “the” European initiative in the 5G domain at global level.

Work performed

During the project life time, we distinguished among few categories of the project activities:
(1) Set-up and maintenance of basic means supporting collaboration among relevant stakeholders
(2) Creation of strategic documents and guidelines
(3) Consolidated wide promotion of the European 5G Initiatives
(4) Targeted activities in informing and positioning the European 5G

(1) In order to establish a solid base among interested European research and innovation community, the 5-Alive project kept on maintaining and further enlarging community around the NetWorld2020 ETP. It included support for various working groups within the ETP and also within the 5G Infrastructure association, as listed below:
• Expert Group
• SatCom Working Group
• NetWorld2020/NEM Working Group
• 5G Vision & Societal perspective
• Enabling 5G via pre-standards
• SME support
• Spectrum for 5G

To enable an efficient communication among the involved stakeholders and external communication, the project established a communication hub, with a number of communication tools provided (mailing lists and document repositories) and the following three main community websites:
• The 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership: https://5g-ppp.eu/,
• NetWorld2020 European Technology Platform: http://networld2020.eu/, and
• European Future Internet Portal: http://www.future-internet.eu/.

Finally, in order to facilitate necessary discussions and interactions within the community, the project organized several workshops and events – major events are listed below:
• NetWorld2020 Event 2014
• European 5G Research at Mobile World Congress 2015
• Expert Group meeting
• 5G launch event
• 6th Usage Areas workshop

(2) Working together with the established working groups and the community at large, the 5-Alive project supported creation of several strategic documents, defining future research and innovation needs towards development of the 5G network infrastructure and beyond:
• Coverage of research areas in first call for projects in the 5G PPP, performed by independent experts on behalf of the 5-Alive project,
• Priority topics and actions for Work Programme 2016-17,
• Research and innovation challenges for “Beyond 5G” (output from the Expert Group),
• Pathway to innovation (white paper on 5G experimentation), and
• Impact of Content and Media on 5G research programme (output from the NetWorld2020/NEM Working Group).

Furthermore, the 5-Alive project supported creation of the 5G Vision document created by 5G Association and ongoing work on the white paper “How Service Level Indicators and Reasonable Traffic Management can increase the value of the Future Internet?” Finally, the project facilitated discussion and definition of first set of the KPIs to follow-up success of the 5G PPP project.

(3) The community discussions and interactions as well as the provided strategic inputs mentioned above provided a base for creation of consolidated messages about the European 5G Initiatives and the 5G PPP programme, which were used for wide promotion of the European 5G, creation of corresponding promotion material, including videos, and to support representation of the European 5G and the PPP at various occasions.

(4) Finally, the project also considered two important aspects of further development of the European 5G Initiatives:
• Introduction of 5G to vertical sectors at two dedicated workshops, resulting with a high-level report on requirements from the vertical sectors on 5G and five white papers from different vertical sectors, providing detailed requirements on 5G.
• Analysis and establishment of relations with the most important 5G organizations at global level (5G Forum - Korea, IMT2020 (5G) Promotion Group - China, 5GMF - Japan, ARIB2020 - Japan, TTC Ad hoc Group on Future Mobile Networking - Japan, 4GAmericas-USA), resulting with 5-Alive set of recommendations for positioning of the European 5G activities – mainly 5G P

Final results

The 5-Alive project supported creation of various strategic documents, e.g. 5G Vision and White Papers on various subjects, which are considered as a base for discussion on future research and innovation needs in the area and definition of research and innovation programmes at various levels; European Union, Member States, and regional levels.

Furthermore, 5-Alive ensured a wide dissemination of all relevant European 5G activities through establishment of consistent messages, promotion material (a number of brochures and videos), and representation at various occasions (26 events), which together with the following five major events directly organized by the project:
• NetWorld2020 Event 2014
• European 5G Research at Mobile World Congress 2015
• Expert Group meeting
• 5G launch event
• 6th Usage Areas workshop

Here, a particular importance was given to global representation of the European 5G Initiatives and establishment of relations with other relevant organizations and associations from Korea, China, Japan, and USA, which are expected to be further developed in the scope of overall 5G activities in accordance with recommendations for global 5G positioning, defined by the project.

Furthermore, the 5-Alive project maintained and further extended community around NetWorld2020 ETP as well as supported work of several working groups from the NetWorld2020 and the 5G Infrastructure Association. The community and the working groups are well positioned and ready to continue their work after the 5-Alive project life time.

The project also facilitated discussions on KPIs to be used to follow-up progress of the 5G PPP projects and provided first set of the KPIs definition, to be used and further refined within the 5G PPP programme.

Finally, the 5-Alive project supported interactions with the vertical sectors and supported creation of the white papers from five vertical sectors on the 5G network infrastructure, which is also seen as first step towards creation of joint project consortiums with participation of ICT/5G experts and representatives from vertical sectors in the

Website & more info

More info: https://5g-ppp.eu/5-alive/.