In this article, an author team from ORamaVR writes about using XR to effectively educate healthcare personnel.
Continue readingExtended Reality
This article provides an overview of what extended reality, or short XR, actually is, the trends and Europe´s position in XR.
Continue readingReconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for 6G
In this article, an author team from the ARIADNE project share their insights on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for 6G.
Continue readingSecurity threats and strategies for 5G and Beyond
The changing threat landscape has impacts on security and trust of current and future networks in Europe and worldwide. Eurescom message editor-in-chief Milon Gupta asked three cybersecurity experts from ENISA, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, about the status, trends and strategies to deal with security threats: Goran Milenkovic is cybersecurity expert in the Policy Development and Implementation unit of ENISA, and he is primarily responsible for the telecom sector and for 5G security; Marnix Dekker leads the work of the Agency in the area of telecom security, cybersecurity breach reporting, and the security of cloud and digital infrastructure under the NIS Directive; and Apostolos Malatras, is Team Leader of ENISA’s Knowledge and Information Team, in charge of the cybersecurity of emerging technologies, threat landscapes and foresight.
Continue readingMilitary use of 5G
Military experts foresee that 5G will play an important role in future military operations, and 5G is today a hot topic in NATO. Ubiquitous connectivity, high bandwidth and low latency opens for many new use cases and military organizations all around the world are today experimenting with 5G and plan to use public 5G networks providing good coverage in combination with military-operated private 5G networks.
Continue readingA holistic security vision for 5G & Beyond networks
The recently arrived 5G architectures will enable a plethora of services and applications never imagined some time ago. However, its complex network infrastructure is prone to suffer cybersecurity attacks that must be tackled in order to ensure users’ privacy and security. In this line, the Horizon-2020-funded INSPIRE-5Gplus project aims at progressing the security vision of 5G & beyond systems by designing and developing a smart, trustworthy and liability-aware security platform for these kinds of systems. To this end, state-of-the-art technologies such as Zero-Touch Network & Service Management (ZSM), Software Defined Security (SD-SEC) modes, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based techniques, and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) are being adopted to provide a security aware architecture and its associated closed-loop of security functions.
Continue readingSecurity and Trust in 5G and Beyond
While network security has always been important as a means to protect the physical infrastructure, and the data and content flowing though the network, it is gaining increased attention in the course of 5G and beyond 5G networks, because networks become deeply rooted in our society in the business, governmental and private spaces.
Continue readingICT for smart sustainable cities in Europe – An overview
Today, 75% of European citizens live in cities. This percentage is expected to grow to 80% by 2050. Cities consume about two thirds of the world’s energy and are responsible for more than 70% of global man-made CO2 emissions. Thus, cities play a crucial role for reaching the European Union’s CO2 reduction goals and the UN sustainability goals. Information and communication technologies are of key importance for enabling cities to become sustainable. The concept for ICT-enabled sustainability on municipal level is called “smart sustainable cities”.
Continue readingLighthouse solutions for urban sustainability
Today’s urban sprawl can easily be summed up by one figure – 75% – which corresponds to the EU’s urban population. It is easy to imagine the resulting high level of resources used and the devastating effects on the environment. The solution? Transforming our cities into smart and sustainable innovation hubs by using the latest findings in the fields of energy, transport and information and communication technology (ICT). This is what STARDUST is all about.
Continue readingCities should be part of EU climate policy decisions
Interview with Covenant of Mayors board member Eckart Würzner
on the sustainable development of European cities
Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner
(photo: @ 2019 Julian Beekmann)
One of the major initiatives promoting the development of smart sustainable cities in Europe is the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. It was launched in 2008 with the ambition to gather local governments voluntarily committed to achieving and exceeding the EU climate and energy targets. Currently the Covenant of Mayors comprises more than 10,200 municipalities worldwide with a total population of 322 million inhabitants. Eurescom message editor-in-chief Milon Gupta interviewed Heidelberg’s mayor Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner about the progress towards sustainable development in his own city and the cities of Europe. Prof. Dr. Würzner has contributed to this progress not only as mayor, but also as political board member of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and president of the climate protection network Energy Cities.
What is your city’s most important sustainable development goal for the next 10 years?
E. Würzner: Heidelberg has been committed to sustainable development since the 1990s as a direct result of the Aalborg Charter [Charter of European Sustainable Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability, 1994 – the editor]. Since then, the urban sustainable development plan has been continuously updated. The newest update is currently running, which is for the first time based on the SDGs [17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations – the editor]. One of the most important goals is SDG 13 – Climate Action.
Our climate protection concept passed the city council 25 years ago and has been constantly renewed. In 2019 Heidelberg declared the climate emergency. This created new measures and accelerated the implementation of local climate protection measures for achieving Heidelberg’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
Which activities have you planned and launched to achieve your city’s sustainable development goals?
E. Würzner: Climate protection in Heidelberg extends into numerous administrative areas and also into further important SDGs, including SDG 7 [Affordable and Clean Energy], SDG 9 [Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure], and SDG 11 [Sustainable Cities and Communities]. In addition to the energy transition, there is also a need for a traffic transition towards environmentally compatible transport and energy-efficient technologies.
In Heidelberg the greatest savings in CO2 emissions can be achieved in the area of building renovations, renewable energies, energy efficient buildings and the transport sector. That is why our focus is on sustainable renovation and sustainable mobility. Therefore the municipality cooperates in various fields of action with local stakeholders like the university, the municipal utility, and the enterprises.
What is the role of ICT for achieving your city’s sustainable development goals?
E. Würzner: Heidelberg is very active in the field of digitisation. The city continues to make steady progress towards becoming a smart city. From broadband expansion and public WiFi to online public participation and open data, digitised infrastructure is set to become as much a part of essential local authority services like electricity, gas and water. The objective is to use new technologies to sustainably improve the lives of all our citizens.
We implement intelligent solutions for different areas of urban development with the help of innovative technologies. In the area of climate protection, for example, these are intelligent house controls to increase resource efficiency. In the case of municipal buildings, energy consumption has been reduced by 50{b28ae05319d94bff0b4d65c5a9f4524dd588360f05c61ef440e1608e0a1c4144}.
How are Energy Cities and the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy contributing to achieving the vision of smart sustainable cities in Europe?
E. Würzner: The political goals of the networks are to empower the cities in their actions and to strengthen collaboration between them. It is important to give the cities a louder voice at the international level. Therefore, we must link the political commitment of the cities to advocacy on European level. The networks should act like a lobby for financial resources, programmes and European laws for climate protection at city level. The cities put policies and institutional settings, frameworks of climate and energy goals into concrete practice. It is not enough for mayors to be experts at negotiations or conferences. It is most important to give them the right to be a part of the decision-making process. Energy Cities and the Covenant of Mayors can provide the framework for this work. Climate issues must become the guiding principle of EU politics, not only in position papers. The European Green Deal is a first and important step. In cooperation with other networks, Energy Cities should ensure that the Green Deal becomes a reality.
Which major societal, economic and technological challenges need to be tackled in the coming years on the way to smart sustainable cities in Europe?
E. Würzner: The question is if smart cities will be low-energy cities with energy-saving and climate-protection objectives. We have to offer solutions for the contradiction between promoting energy-saving objectives and increasing the number of electronic devices exponentially. More importantly, digital technology may one day be able to optimise the urban system. We need a complete change of paradigm.
Inventing short-distance cities, reclaiming urban space monopolised by cars and returning it to pedestrians and cyclists as well as relocating a significant share of the production – including food production – to the city are just a few examples of urban policies that are more important for smart cities than just achieving the energy transition.
Ultimately, smart sustainable cities are first and foremost cities designed for enabling their inhabitants to lead a free, low-energy life, without being trapped in a technical system.