Facility sites & Use Cases
Facility Sites
IMAGINE-B5G brings together four advanced 5G experimental facilities, located in Norway, Spain, Portugal, and France. These facilities will capitalise on previous 5G-PPP infrastructure and vertical trial projects by drawing analogies while reusing and improving the platform components as much as possible. Relevant vertical stakeholders will exploit IMAGINE-B5G platform to extensively test a wide number of B5G vertical use cases within the IMAGINE-B5G facility sites. This will be possible thanks to the 3rd party ecosystem created through the Open Calls.
Telenor’s 5G Experimentation Platform includes a central site in Fornebu as well as several edge and RAN sites across Norway. The capabilities that the facility supports are as follows: (i) E2E network slicing (eMBB, URLLC, mMTC) with the option of customized network slice, (ii) E2E network orchestration and service orchestration, (iii) cloud-native infrastructure, (iv) next generation 5G RAN, (v) 5G standalone (SA) multivendor core, (vi) next generation Firewall as a service.
The Spanish facility will comprise four sites: UPV campus and the port in Valencia, a rural site in Soria, and an experimental laboratory in Madrid. These sites are formed by different RATs and independent 5GCores with E2E network slicing. It will be evolved during the project to obtain an interconnected and distributed infrastructure. This facility implements edge cloud based on hyperscaler stack, both in ‘private’ and ‘public’ flavours to adapt to different customer needs. The goal is to provide public network support to extend coverage for large scale trials.
The Portuguese facility features a platform that exploits a rich set of capabilities and characteristics that go beyond the mere aggregation of equipment. The overall infrastructure features both research and commercial graded solutions and open labs to provide a real-life city-wide environment for developing, integrating, and testing novel solutions for 5G and beyond technologies. The infrastructure is geographically distributed across the city area and encompasses various indoor and outdoor 5G NR deployments supported with different 5G Core and Edge Computing solutions. Besides enabling wireless communications, the deployment incorporates connected devices (e.g., CCTV cameras, user equipment, and IoT devices) which can be leveraged for the validation of 5G technologies.
EURECOM is located at the Sophia Antipolis science park within the SophiaTech Campus. Sophia Antipolis is Europe’s largest and permanently expanding science and technology park. Open5GLab at EURECOM provides experimental 5G services including eMBB, URLLC and mMTC. Based on fully open- source tools and open-architecture design, it provides the means to on-board new network functions to the running 5G infrastructure and test them in both a controlled laboratory setting and in a deployed live network. It is the main experimental playground for OAI and M5G SW packages. In addition, EURECOM will provide its open-source advanced 5G network-in-a-box, which will allow trials in locations outside the coverage area of the fixed infrastructure.
Facility sites & Use Cases
Use Cases
Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR)
In the future, sensors, cameras, and other automatic devices will be a significant source of information for
public safety and other professional users. Information from IoT will also become important for developing a
full picture and thus providing better support – before and during incidents. Public safety organizations will
have significantly more information on which to base decisions. This could help critical operations be more
active, for example, moving from extinguishing fires to preventing fires in advance. The UC’s goal is to improve
event identification and characterization, operation and disaster relief. To achieve this, the IMAGINE-B5
platform will leverage B5G features for reliable and efficient information collection (from UAVs and other
sensors) and data processing to provide smooth real-time reporting, critical updates, and actionable
intelligence, as timing and reliability can be the difference between life-or-death disasters. Furthermore, the
platform relies on the computing continuum to overcome the complex decision-making process throughout
the cycle.
Safety and protection are considered as major aspects that must be integrated into the port-logistic chain
connected with daily activity of maritime ports and terminals. In this domain, surveillance and inspection
activities are fundamental to minimize the risks that are intrinsic to the activities carried out at berthing areas,
port accesses and terminal yards. In the last years, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in
surveillance and infrastructure inspection activities has grown rapidly, since UAV enable safer, faster and
more accurate operation than traditional surveillance and inspection methods. Some potential applications
of UAVs are maritime rescue support (e.g., man overboard situations), anchoring area inspection, oil spill
detection, dangerous goods tracking, etc. This use case aims at enabling critical surveillance and inspection
with UAVs in maritime ports and terminals thanks to the use of 5G Rel.16 capabilities, which will allow to
meet the stringent URLLC requirements related to real-time inspection and surveillance activities.
Additionally, optimal coverage will be achieved by exploiting a seamless combination of 5G private and public
network services. These functionalities will be combined with traditional 5G Rel.15 broadband capabilities to
transmit real-time video streams with high-definition resolutions from different inland and coastal locations.
Commercial ports have reliable contingency plans and actions in case of accidents. However, if an accident
occurs in the port, advanced and ready-to-use technologies could boost these contingency actions and
rescue plans. As for the preventive actions, advanced technologies could also be used for periodical and ad-
hoc inspections of ports’ waters. The use of Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) in surveillance and inspection
enables safer and faster first-aid rescue actions and a continuous seafloor mapping inside the port facilities.
This Use Case leverages 5G communications to enable the usage of a remote USV devoted to support critical
operations at the port. More precisely, this USV will be a multifunctional boat for, but not limited to, first-aid
rescue actions, first evaluation and signalization in case of accidents or under-water inspection to detect
hazards. In order to support these operations, it is expected that exchanged data between the ground control
station, located at the ports’ Emergency Control Centre, and the vehicle will include among others: wind
speed, weight, pitch, roll, current depth, geolocation, real-time, LIDAR images, video (dock’s/boat’s
cameras), etc. This UC includes the development of an immersive cockpit on top of the GCS, sensorizing the
USV, integrating the USV equipment within the 5G and implementation of AI image recognition for the
operational designed tasks of the USV.
IMAGINE-B5G will provide an IoT platform for the management of all emergency cycles. Focused on
Emergency Management, this platform manages risks for communities, the environment and infrastructure.
It is the core business of the Emergency Services, but every individual and organisation have a role to play.
In addition, this platform uses IoT sensors and telecommunications infrastructure to increase the ability to
collect data and make informed decisions. This solution helps companies to be better prepared, respond
more quickly, and to send vital information to those who need it.
Media
IMAGINE-B5G will develop and make trials for audio and video to be wirelessly transmitted from the capture
setups to the production setup that will be finally broadcasted to the end nodes, where it is presented to the
users, leveraging on B5G networks. This use case will cover the high-quality, studio or live content production
and may also investigate the possibility of user generated content.
For the trials, the content will be captured wirelessly in one facility/field and the production will take place in
the same facility/field or another facility/location remotely. The trials will be coordinated and conducted in
coordination with NRK, a main use case stakeholder for immersive media production and distribution in
Norway. NRK is the Norway’s public owned broadcaster offering online, TV, radio, and audio content [NRK].
Live and studio broadcasting is an important part of NRK’s activity, e.g., covering sports and entertainment
events.
Immersive communication technologies, such as holography, are becoming increasingly popular as they
provide 3D visual information without the need for a device. Holographic technology is considered a key
element in the future 5G-Advanced and 6G ecosystem, which aims to create a more interconnected,
immersive, tactile, holographic Internet, providing a seamless connection between the real and digital
worlds. This use case primary objective is to explore the potential of holographic technologies in pre-recorded
media or real-time scenarios, it will consist in performing multiple tests and trials for different verticals to
understand the value and requirements of holographic technologies. To achieve this, the IMAGINE-B5G
platform will leverage beyond-5G features for high data rates for transmitting holographic content in real
time, also through the IMAGINE-B5G platform will be performed numerous tests and trials to understand the
specific requirements and value of holographic technologies.
Transportation and Logistics
This use case depicts a scenario of autonomous driving that relies on a hybrid positioning system utilizing
both GNSS and 5G terrestrial base stations to provide an improved position accuracy and FTTF. This system
utilizes RTK corrections and 5G signal information to achieve better accuracy. The road vehicle moves around
a transportation route where the algorithms will determine its most accurate position.
In principle, GNSS positioning can be accessed globally, anywhere on the Earth, without requiring any local
or regional infrastructure and with great accuracy but have a not-so-great latency. On the other hand, 5G
network-based positioning demonstrates good latency performance but requires indoors scenarios to
achieve good accuracy in most of the cases. However, the latency of GNSS positioning can be improved with the assistance of 5G network-based positioning as a complementary trade-off between them, since on GNSS
positioning we have a better accuracy while on 5G positioning we have a better latency, so joining them
together we can have the better of both technologies.
The reparation or maintenance of machines in logistic environments is a highly expensive task, due to the
necessity of sending experts to physically check the equipment. If the asset to repair is very specific, it may
require experts from other countries to travel long distances, with the consequent carbon footprint. However,
a minimally qualified engineer may also perform the task if he receives the proper assessment from a remote
expert. By using immersive technologies such as telepresence and haptics, boosted by the capabilities of
B5G networks, the remote expert would be able to provide the required instructions to the field engineer in
real-time.
The field engineer will place a robot or an AGV equipped with a 360o/PTZ camera next to the damaged
machine, allowing the remote expert to connect via 5G to visualize the video on a VR/AR HMD, controlling the
viewing perspective via the HMD’s IMUs. Moreover, the field engineer can be equipped with other VR/AR HMD to visualize instructions from the remote expert, who shows the action to perform using haptic gloves. The
introduction of immersive communication into the workflow will be assessed and compared with traditional
methods. Different slices will be available so that multi-user deployments can be enabled based on GBR
(Guaranteed Bit Rate) profiles for ensuring the required minimum quality in terms of assigned bandwidth for
every single UE taking place in the use case.
Industry 4.0
The aim of this use case is to empower industries with B5G technologies to facilitate the prediction of
problems, increase production, flexibility, safety, mobility, scalability, reduce downtime, maintenance
intervention and costs, thus improving manufacturing competitiveness. In this context, IMAGINE-B5G
advanced features will be leveraged to explore novel use cases on the factory floor such as control-to-control
communication, equipment tracking, close loop control for process automation, network-based AGV control,
asset condition tracking for predictive maintenance, among others. Moreover, leveraging edge computing
capabilities and the integration such technologies with factories’ Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and
production line will enable a low latency closed control loop targeting diverse production aspects including orders, machinery status and asset location. This use case will then leverage B5G technologies to provide
very low latency and advanced edge-based IoT solutions, while satisfying industry isolation requirements.
Education
As information technologies are being introduced in this field, education practices and opportunities are
rapidly evolving worldwide. The primary challenge that this use case will aim to address is remote/distance
teaching to facilitate the participation of both teachers and students who cannot be physically present in the
classroom. On the other hand, certain skills such as lab work and hands-on experiences, require extra tactile
stimulation to produce the same level of learning online as in real life and real-time. Learning such skills or
visualizing abstract concepts in an interactive way can benefit from the integration of AR and VR into
immersive classrooms. Further, haptic responses that are possible through tactile internet, and can
reproduce the feeling, touch, or motion of interacting directly with a physical object, could introduce tactile
forms of learning to a classroom through traditional video conferencing platforms, thus enriching the
interactions. 5G/Β5G can help in this direction as it will improve personalization by creating intelligent
systems, using Artificial Intelligence, to understand the unique needs of each student and create targeted
learning pathways. To achieve a highly immersive and interactive experience between the two ends (e.g., by
using VR Robotics, Figure 16), it will exploit B5G features and KPIS, mainly focusing on low latency and
network reliability aspects, as well as advanced data analytics and AI algorithms to perform predictive
analyses (e.g., latency) and enhance the end-to-end performance. In addition, it will explore solutions
towards improving the current means of knowledge transmission from a learning retention perspective.
Smart Agriculture & Forestry
IMAGINE-B5G aims to precisely apply fertilizers and pesticides, helping to increase the performance of the
cultivation and reducing the environmental impact of pesticides. The data gathered by the advanced IoT
sensors will be processed in a computing continuum platform, which will optimize for the most energy
efficient location for processing. The federated edge architecture will allow the coordination between the UPV
campus and the agricultural warehouses, which enables the optimization of the logistics of the transportation of the goods, improving energy efficiency at transportation. IMAGINE-B5G counts with the support of ITACYL
in the AB for agriculture expert support, their experts- with deep knowledge of innovative agricultural SMEs
interested in participating in the trials. They will help to showcase a real world setting of the use case.
Nowadays rangers perform different operations in the forest such as planning operations regarding biotope
preservation, identifying trees for thinning process, or monitoring and inspecting the health of the forest.
IMAGINE B5G will leverage high capacity, low latency, and massive machine-type communications to
provide higher resolution and diversity of data for forest health monitoring, and the also the potential of
remote management of forest machinery. Along with passive sensors, drones and UAVs can be used to
monitor and survey the forest, saving significant time and increasing worker efficiency during harvesting.
IMAGINE B5G will also explore the option of extending the coverage towards rural areas along with
deploying portable 5G network solutions that could be utilized more effectively during the harvesting period
or thinning process in a certain specific region. XR immersion can be used in an educational context to teach
about natural forest habitats.
eHealth
World Health Organisation (WHO) defined eHealth as “the cost-effective and secure use of Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT) in support of health and health-related fields, including healthcare
services, health surveillance, health literature, health education, knowledge and research” [UC5-IT-01]. So,
the inclusion of ICT technologies can bring a revolution to the health system, increasing access, efficiency,
and quality of care, while providing high control to the patient.
5G and beyond technologies are expected to support novel eHealth use cases, which will significantly
improve the health system. This includes the usage of smart sensors to monitor the vital signs of patients
while having the flexibility and mobility of wireless communications; improving hospital processes with
logistics tracking; early connecting the patient to hospital personnel during emergencies; and helping in the
processing of complex diagnoses.
Imagine-B5G will aim at exploring eHealth use cases in the context of enhancing the operations of care
facilities to provide improved health services. The goal is twofold: on the one hand better understanding the
challenges in leveraging advanced 5G features; and on the other to increase the awareness of care facilities
of the potential solutions to be achievable through the adoption of 5G technologies as part of their process of
digitalization.
This use case focuses on enhancing care facilities by means of advanced 5G technologies to improve the
overall quality of the health system and its delivery to patients. To this end, the use case considers three
different stages of the health system: (i) the proactive/continuous care; (ii) the care in emergency situations;
and (iii) improved health facility logistics.
The demand for expert examination (such as ultrasound examination for congenital heart disease can
practically come from anywhere. In some cases, such demands may come from remote locations with
insufficient access to trained and experienced healthcare professionals both for performing the examination
and producing correct diagnoses.
The aim of this use case is to develop and make real-world trials regarding remote care by providing
immersive equipment (e.g., MR/AR/VR headsets, controllers, 3D cameras) for seamless interactions between
a remote medical expert and the local doctor/technician or the patient that needs specialized treatment. On
the patient’s side, there must also be medical equipment that can be remotely controlled by the expert (e.g.,
medical robot). For this use case to work, future B5G technologies will be leveraged to provide high-quality
immersive media with very low latency between the remote and local sites.