Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 5G-DRIVE (5G HarmoniseD Research and TrIals for serVice Evolution between EU and China)
Reporting period: 2020-03-01 to 2021-06-30
In addition to the trial activities, the project has worked on more than 10 research topics related to 5G, including massive MIMO, network slicing, AI based traffic offloading, MEC, edge caching, RAN transport, and vehicle network security, etc. The results are reported in the final deliverables of WP3-5 and scientific publications. Thanks to the cooperation with the Chinese twin project, the project could compare the theoretic results of massive MIMO derived from the project with the real measurements from the Chinese twin project.
5G-DRIVE has performed 5G and C-V2X trials jointly with a Chinese twin project. The two projects collaborated closely and have achieved concrete results. 5G-DRIVE partners visited China Mobile’s eMBB trial site at Hangzhou several times and made a series of 5G NSA/SA tests with Chinese partners. 5G-DRIVE conducted similar tests under the project’s own 5G test networks. Both projects also performed LTE-V2X trials under agreed use cases. The eMBB and LTE-V2X results of the two projects have been analysed and compared.
5G-DRIVE has also achieved excellent dissemination results. The project has led two IEEE ICC workshops, two 5G World Forum workshops, one dedicated SME workshop, and organized a couple of joint workshops with other 5G projects. The project has presented in multiple global events, including Global 5G Events, WIOT, EuCNC, 5G Summit, 5G Core Summit, and ITS congress. The eMBB and V2X video demos have been showed in 5G Summit, EuCNC, and ITS congress. The project has published over 30 scientific publications in well-known journals, magazine, and conferences.
5G-DRIVE participated in standardisation activities and has made significant standard contributions to ETSI, ITU and ISO. Seven technical contributions have been adopted by ETSI EN 302 571. The project partners have led the study on deployment of IPv6-based vehicular networking and completed an ETSI technical report.
• Holistic 5G networks implementations based on the latest 5G innovations and evaluated in two prominent usage scenarios.
• 5G RAN for the specified bands validated in real world environments.
• Global interoperability demonstrations for 5G networks.
• Joint contributions to global 5G standards specifications in relevant organisations.
• Successful showcasing events with, ideally, joint demonstration across regions.
• New or reinforced cooperation between 5G R&I stakeholders from EU and China, with a focus on private companies.
The project has achieved significant outcomes related to these impacts. The project has successfully conducted the eMBB and V2X trials in 5 trial sites (Guildford, Espoo, Ispra, Tampere and Warsaw). In addition, joint eMBB trials were conducted in the Chinese trial site. The key performance of 5G NSA and SA, and LTE-V2X under various use cases have been evaluated. 5G and C-V2X innovations, including massive MIMO, network slicing, MEC, edge caching, 5G RAN transport, V2X coexistence, etc, have been studied. These results have been widely disseminated through 5G events, workshops, and publications. 5G-DRIVE has made standard contributions to ETSI, ITU-R, and ISO. Before the pandemic, the project has organized events in Shanghai and Dresden. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the showcasing events. However, the project organized online events to showcase the collaboration and project results. The eMBB and V2X demos were shown through online videos. The project actively uses social media channels to promote 5G cooperation. Both projects have met three times face-to-face, where the companies from both sides, including tier-1 vendors, mobile operators, car manufacturer, and SMEs participated.
5G-DRIVE aimed to create impacts also related to 5G PPP KPIs, including the leveraging of EU funding in terms of private investment in R&D for 5G systems, regarding 20% SME participation, and for reaching a global market share for 5G equipment & services delivered by European head-quartered companies. 5G-DRIVE has taken efforts to promote these KPIs through its dissemination and exploitation activities. In addition, collaborations have been established with other vendors, operators, SMEs through joint trial activities supported by other national and EU 5G projects. Through these joint activities, R&D and private investment on 5G are promoted. 5G-DRIVE had also a significant SME participation: Among 17 partners 6 were SMEs, which presents 35% of consortium partnership.
5G-DRIVE has also targeted environmental and societal impacts and in that respect has conducted research on new services, energy efficiency and security topics. Energy consumption of 5G slicing has been analysed. The security and privacy were addressed under vehicle networks. Seven 5G and V2X services were analysed. 5G-DRIVE created impact on European competence through 5G and V2X trials and standardization activities. The project has made remarkable contributions to ETSI. 5G-DRIVE has also cooperated with other projects to improve the test facilities, network deployment, and network performance. The cooperation with the Chinese twin project allowed for information sharing between EU and China. The test methodologies, network configuration and optimization methods will help improving 5G test networks and give value for future trialling activities.