5G-DRIVE is underway and will bring changes to the 5G landscape in Europe and China
The year of 2017 represented a significant milestone for 5G, the most recent generation of mobile communications. With the approval of the first technical specifications for the 5G New Radio, the conditions were created for the large-scale pre-commercial trials of 5G systems. 5G developments and deployment are on the agenda, with international collaboration and alignment efforts being essential. Europe and China are two of the front runners in 5G development and deployment and are called on to identify ways to align their 5G research and innovation ecosystems. Efforts should focus on joint projects and the enabling of interactions between key stakeholders, defining of business cases, technologies and regulations. Building on a previous Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the 5G Public Private Partnership (PPP) Infrastructure Association (5G-IA) and the International Mobile Telecommunications 2020 (IMT-2020) Promotion Group of China, the European Commission and China agreed to fund a joint project on 5G trials to address two of the most promising 5G deployment scenarios: enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. 5G Harmonised Research and Trials for service Evolution between EU and China (5G-DRIVE) is a new, €6 million European Union Horizon 2020 funded project that will trial and validate the interoperability between EU and China 5G networks operating at 3.5 GHz bands for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and 3.5 & 5.9 GHz bands for V2X scenarios. 5G-DRIVE will bridge current 5G developments in Europe and China through joint trials and research activities to facilitate technology convergence, spectrum harmonisation and business innovation before the large-scale commercial deployment of 5G networks occurs. 5G-DRIVE will develop key 5G technologies and pre-commercial testbeds for eMBB and V2X services in collaboration with the Chinese twinning project. Trials for testing and validating key 5G functionalities, services and network planning will be carried out in Europe and China. 5G-DRIVE held its kick-off meeting on September 6-7, 2018 in Heidelberg (Germany). The project will run from September 2018 to February 2021 and is coordinated by Eurescom (Germany) and includes 16 additional EU partners: BMW Group (Germany), Dynniq (Finland), ERTICO (Belgium), JRC (Belgium), Martel (Switzerland), Mandat International (Switzerland), Orange (Poland), Orion Innovations (Greece), OTE (Greece), SMNET (Greece), SPI (Portugal), University of Kent (UK), University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), University of Surrey (UK), Vediafi Oy (Finland) and VTT (Finland). Visit us at: https://5g-drive.eu/ | Twitter: https://twitter.com/5GDRIVE/
Countries
Belgium, Switzerland, China, Germany, Greece, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, United Kingdom