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 readingEvents calendar
2 December 2020
CELTIC-NEXT Day
Virtual event
https://www.celticnext.eu/event/celtic-next-day-2-december-2020/
6 – 10 December 2020
European Conference on Optical Communications – ECOC 2020
Virtual conference
https://ecoco2020.org
7 – 11 December 2020
IEEE Global Communications Conference – Globecom 2020
Taipei, Taiwan / Virtual
https://globecom2020.ieee-globecom.org
9 – 12 January 2021
18th IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference – CCNC 2021
Virtual conference
https://ccnc2021.ieee-ccnc.org
1 – 4 March 2021
24th Conference on Innovation in Clouds, Internet and Networks – ICIN 2021
Virtual conference
https://www.icin-conference.org
8 – 11 June 2021
EuCNC & 6G Summit
Porto, Portugal
https://www.eucnc.eu
14 – 18 June 2021
IEEE International Conference on Communications – ICC 2021
Montreal, Canada
https://icc2021.ieee-icc.org
28 June – 1 July 2021
MWC Barcelona 2021
Barcelona, Spain
https://www.mwcbarcelona.com
How Austria supports CELTIC-NEXT projects
The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)
Michael Walch
Eureka National Project Coordinator
Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)
The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) is the one-stop shop national funding agency for industrial research and development in Austria. All FFG activities aim to strengthen Austria as a research and innovation centre on the global market. Thus, the FFG helps to assure jobs and wealth sustainably as well as to make a lasting contribution to the strength of the Austrian economy.
The FFG is wholly owned by the Republic of Austria and subsidized by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW). As a provider of innovation enabling services, the FFG is also active on behalf of other national and international institutions.
Involvement in Eureka and CELTIC-NEXT
As part of its activities, FFG supports Eureka as an initiative to encourage collaboration between organisations across Europe and beyond in the near-market development of new and innovative advanced technology products, processes and services. With this strong market orientation, Eureka complements
the EU’s strategic research programmes. The flexible Eureka programmes offer multiple opportunities for SMEs, large companies, universities and research organisations.
Eureka Clusters like CELTIC-NEXT are industry-led initiatives that focus on technology areas of strategic interest. Projects are driven by communities of large companies, SMEs, universities, research institutions and end users. The aim is to promote development of new products and applications through networking and to strengthen the European economy on the world market.
FFG actively supports CELTIC-NEXT and provides the required funding to Austrian companies, in line with the distributed public-private partnership model that Eureka clusters employ. Likewise, FFG funding schemes play an important role in generating new knowledge, developing new products and services, and enhancing competitiveness in the global marketplace. They make it easier, or possible, to finance innovative projects, and help to absorb the risks involved in research.
Information about the process for submitting a successful project proposal and funding conditions in Austria can be found on the FFG’s CELTIC-NEXT page at: https://www.ffg.at/europa/eureka/cluster/celtic-plus
Case study – CELTIC project ASUA
A good example of a successful CELTIC project with Austrian participation is ASUA, a collaboration between 8 consortium partners from 5 countries dedicated to Advanced Sensing for Urban Automation. The research work of the two Austrian consortium partners Geodata Ziviltechnikergesellschaft and Montanuniversität Leoben included the development of a system for the introduction of Smart City technologies in urban tunnel construction. The system called UrbMics is composed of (i) a multifunction box (UrbMics box) for local storage, intelligent processing and wireless transmission of monitoring data of a tunnel construction site, (ii) a wireless sensor network (UrbMics WSN) as well as (iii) an associated web-based information and control center (UrbMics center) to control the multifunction boxes and manage their data. In the project, the components have been specified, planned, developed, implemented and tested and validated on an ongoing, urban tunnel construction site. For this, Smart City application scenarios defined within the framework of the CELTIC project have been designed and implemented. The UrbMics platform is integrated into an ASUA reference platform and has also been used by other CELTIC project partners to validate their technologies.
Figure 1: Two UrbMics box field prototypes prepared for construction site installation, left: with, right: without built-in UrbMics WSN components).
The Austrian end result are operational prototypes of the systems UrbMics box, UrbMics WSN and UrbMics center and field tests of the prototypes.
Figure 2: Integration of the UrbMics overall system into the UARP (Urban Automation Reference Platform).
Figure 3: Web interface of the UrbMics center, map showing 3 UrbMics boxes and 6 sensor positions).
Outlook
Austria, as one of the founding members of Eureka, takes over the chairmanship of the network in 2020/2021 and will pave the road “Towards a New Eureka”. Accordingly, in the upcoming year the network will prioritise the further development of Eureka’s programmes, global outreach and internal cooperation. All core activities of the Austrian Chairmanship are built around the celebration of 35 years of Eureka. Thereby, one of the important topics is the revitalization of the Eureka Clusters. The goal is to renew the successful Eureka Clusters model to provide the best opportunities for global RDI in the time to come. Likewise, at FFG we look ahead to a bright future with CELTIC-NEXT and the projects generated in this programme.
› Further information
› FFG website – https://www.ffg.at/en
› CELTIC project ASUA – https://www.celticnext.eu/project-asua/
Cities 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.
Sn@pshot
Another virtual meeting
The new reality of European research and innovation events in times of corona looks like this: two people –Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General Research and Innovation, and Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth – are standing on a stage in Brussels. The four panelists in their session sit in their (home) offices across Europe. And so do all the participants watching the panel session.
The snapshot, or in this case rather screenshot, was taken at the European Research and Innovation Days on 22nd September 2020.
Further information is available on the European Research and Innovation Days website at
https://research-innovation-days.ec.europa.eu/ and in the event article in this issue of Eurescom message.
More synergies and global cooperation in Eureka
Interview with Eureka Chairman Ulrich Schuh
On 1st July, Austria took over the Eureka Chairmanship for one year – already for the second time in the 35-year history of Eureka. The ambitious motto of the Austrian Chairmanship is ‘‘Towards a New Eureka’’. CELTIC News editor Milon Gupta asked Eureka Chairman Ulrich Schuh from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), which hosts the Chairmanship on behalf of the Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, about the ambitions and plans behind this motto.
Which challenges and opportunities do you see for Eureka today and tomorrow?
U. Schuh: Since the foundation of Eureka, the world has changed fundamentally and also the conditions for international cooperation in the field of innovation. Eureka faces the challenge that member countries currently have a wide set of opportunities at hand that allow the support of innovative companies at European and global level. So Eureka has to prove its added value. At the same time, the model of Eureka that is based on the principle of variable geometry and a decentralised organisation is more modern than ever. This has allowed Eureka to become a truly global organisation with 47 countries in its network.
What are the main priorities of the Austrian Eureka Chairmanship?
U. Schuh: The Austrian Chairmanship is guided by the slogan ‘New Eureka’, which is also the headline of the new Strategic Roadmap approved during the last Dutch Chairmanship. We have three priorities. First, new instruments will be launched during this year: the new Eurostars Partnership with the European Commission and especially the New Clusters Programme. Second, Austria will intensify and enlarge global cooperation within Eureka. We are proud to welcome Singapore to our network during our Chairmanship. Third, we will improve our services for our stakeholders and want to encourage all Eureka countries to be even more engaged
in the activities of our network.
Which enhanced roles do you anticipate for the current Eureka Clusters in the new Eureka Clusters Programme?
U. Schuh: The Clusters are a success story of Eureka, but we have also understood that the potential of the Clusters programme has not yet been fully exploited. In order to boost the impact of the Clusters, we want to increase their visibility to potential stakeholders and
to use synergies to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Visibility will be enhanced by synchronised thematic calls developed in cooperation with the existing Cluster communities. Synergies will be realised by the close cooperation of Cluster Communities through a multi-annual strategy and an annual work programme. The synchronised Call on Artificial Intelligence is a first successful pilot in this respect.
How is the involvement of non-European countries like Canada and Korea enhancing the Eureka network?
U. Schuh: At its foundation, Eureka allowed Member States of the European Union to benefit from cooperation with EFTA countries in order to establish a Western European alternative in research, development and innovation to global competitors. Meanwhile, Eureka is a truly global organisation with 47 countries. The non-European Eureka countries have proven to be an essential asset of
Eureka. Korea became a partner country in 2017; Canada is also very active and has for example initiated the COVID-19 ECHO call in April this year. Also, our other associated countries – South Africa, Chile and Argentina – are reliable partners in the Eureka family.
How should the Eureka programmes add value in the evolving European and global innovation landscape?
U. Schuh: After 35 years the Eureka model of cooperation is more relevant than ever. The most pressing current challenges of countries in Europe and all over the world are the
COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. It is understood that these challenges cannot be solved at local, regional, national or even at European level. Here, global cooperation is inevitable, and this is true especially in the field of technology, where solutions have to be developed. Whenever two companies from two different countries are developing an R&D project, Eureka is the most suitable platform to support this initiative. We have the infrastructure in place, the available funding, efficient procedures, and via the Globalstars programme we reach out all around the world far beyond our current 47 countries.
Co-creation of smart sustainable cities
The 5G SOLUTIONS project
Dr. Per Jonny Nesse
Telenor Research
Håkon Lønsethagen
Telenor Research
In 2050, two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, according to the United Nations [1]. In order for cities to handle this growth in a sustainable way, they have to become energy efficient and climate resilient, improve mobility and healthcare, as well as become inclusive and attractive for all citizens. ICT solutions and especially 5G, the next generation communication technology, can become an important enabler for solving these challenges.
5G SOLUTION is one of eight projects under Phase 3 of the 5G-PPP, a private-public partnership initiated and funded through The European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, with the aim of supporting research and innovation within the smart city vertical along with other adjacent verticals [2]. This is a consortium of 26 European partners from academia, research centers, telecom operators, large industries and SMEs in 5G SOLUTIONS [3]. Telenor is a 5G experimental facility provider in the project leveraging the 5G-VINNI platform [4]. While the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering is a partner in the project addressing “Factories of the Future”, the NTNU smart sustainable cities is a cross-department and cross-disciplinary knowledge cluster and an external partner collaborating with Telenor to address “Co-creation for smart sustainable cities”.
Smart city use cases
In 5G SOLUTIONS an array of smart city use case scenarios are outlined and specified for upcoming trials and validations both technologically and business wise.
The smart city use cases outlined in 5G SOLUTIONS include:
- Smart street lighting: Electricity consumption is estimated to increase up to 80{b28ae05319d94bff0b4d65c5a9f4524dd588360f05c61ef440e1608e0a1c4144} in cities until 2030 compared to 2005 [5]. Reducing the electricity for lighting up streets and public areas is one area to become more energy efficient. Dimming or even switching on and off street lamps in low-traffic areas can be activated through sensor- or camera-monitoring persons or vehicles passing by. This will help the municipalities saving money and becoming more eco-friendly, while avoiding negative effects such as car accidents.
- Smart parking: Thirty percent of traffic in cities are looking for a parking space [6]. Smart parking solutions using 4K video cameras for real-time detection of occupancy and frequency/turnover of use of metropolitan area parking spaces will contribute to reduction of congestion and emissions, improve traffic safety, and simultaneously allow higher quality of life for the residents. This solution can also be combined with optimizing charging and electric network usage of electric cars and other electric vehicles such as buses or bikes.
- Smart buildings and campus: Internet of Things sensors can be deployed in private office buildings and public facilities to measure air quality, room occupancy, etc., reduce the energy consumption, allow for predictive maintenance, and utilize proximity lighting turning off heating or air conditioning when no one is present. 4K video cameras monitoring and automated detection of dangerous situations can help improve the physical security of the campus as well as the safety of its occupants. Understanding how buildings are used through sensors can also help with better planning of spaces and energy reduction for buildings.
- Smart harbour and ports: The Yara Birkeland fertilizer plant at port Herøya in Norway aims to have the world’s first fully electric autonomous container ship with zero emissions, replacing 40.000 diesel powered truck haulage journeys a year. 5G infrastructure will be deployed on the port premises supporting self-driving vehicles in addition to digitalizing working processes, e.g. remote VR/AR enhanced maintenance and operation, also providing a safer working environment.
Examples of smart sustainable city use case scenarios enabled through 5G technology (Source: AdobeStock)
Social innovation
In addition to these four vertical use cases, a new cross-cutting case for smart cities co-creation will be designed around social innovation. This will entail, amongst others, virtual and distributed co-creation between citizens and professional stakeholders and decision makers, supported by reliable live visual distribution and interactive communication with multiple remote areas, the use of digital twins, the exploration of sensor deployment, support for citizen science, and mixed reality media.
All the use case scenarios can be realized through support from 5G technology with higher data rate and lower latency, as well as massive machine-type communication such as connecting high numbers of sensors and IoT devices. A precondition is that the smart city ecosystems of partners and stakeholders are present, starting with municipalities and local governments enabling collaboration with potential industry and academic partners across several sectors [7].
Business model enablement and outlook
Information from these scenarios on energy consumption and behavioural patterns, whether it is data generated by citizens, IoT sensor networks or city level data that has broad communal use and is privacy-protected, could be made available across vertical silos proposing new collaborative frameworks and business models rewarding openness, transaction and data sharing. This can enable start-ups, SMEs, NGOs and local communities to take advantage of this data and build new apps and services relevant to the wider community. Applying machine learning or artificial intelligence techniques and algorithms on these data sets can also be an important enabler for detecting cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions beneficial for the ecosystem players and in the end for the citizens’ well-being.
References
[1] United Nations, “The world’s cities in 2016,” 2017.
[2] 5G PPP, “5G empowering verticals,” 17 May 2020. [Online]. Available: https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/BROCHURE_5PPP_BAT2_PL.pdf
[3] 5G SOLUTIONS (5G Solutions for European Cities) project –
https://www.5gsolutionsproject.eu
[4] 5G-VINNI (5G Verticals Innovation Infrastructure) project – https://www.5g-vinni.eu
[5] Worldbank.org, “LED street lighting: Unburdening our cities,” 2020.
[6] Nettavisen, “30 prosent av all bytrafikk er unødvendig,” 2017.
[7] E. Almirall, J. Wreham, C. Ratti, P. Conesa, F. Bria, A. Gaviria and A. Edmondson, “Smart Citites at the Crossroads: New Tensions in City Transformation,” California Management Review, vol. 59, no. 1, 2016.
VIRTUOSE
Virtualized video services
Tiia Ojanperä
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.
The motivation for CELTIC project VIRTUOSE was to develop video services that are scalable, secure and easily deployable on different computing platforms. This was achieved by using cloud computing and virtualization techniques for deployment of video services in order to realize different core use cases.
The three-year project (2016-2019) contributed to several R&D areas in the context of the core use cases. VIRTUOSE was a joint undertaking of 19 industrial and research partners from five European countries: Finland, Germany, Romania, Spain and Turkey. Nokia was the project coordinator and VTT the technical coordinator in VIRTUOSE.
Approach
The four core use cases studied during the project were: cloud gaming, multiparty video communications, video transcoding & distribution, and video analytics. These video services benefitted from virtualized components and a common system architecture, allowing easy and dynamic video service deployment and scaling. Within the work areas, several sub-use cases were analysed and their implementations showcased in the form of demonstrators.
Novel cloud computing techniques, consisting of virtualization solutions, such as KVM, and Linux containers, such as Docker and LXC, were used to containerize the video services. Rancher was deployed to manage containerized service instances. In this manner, the VIRTUOSE architecture is able to offer solutions to the trade-off between distribution of the computation and localization of the data, as well as making the source code portable to different virtualized platforms.
The figure shows the applicationes targeted by VIRTUOSE and a common framework for their realization.
Achieved results
The main results of the VIRTUOSE project include a common architecture for the different core use cases and virtualized components for video coding, analysis and streaming that can be easily deployed, maintained and scaled using lightweight containers. The project advanced the state-of-the-art through several algorithmic and system-level contributions in different domains.
For the cloud gaming use case, a low-latency video encoder was developed using a low-complexity approach called logarithmical hopping encoding (LHE). The implementation was published as open source and integrated in the popular multimedia framework FFmpeg. For the video transcoding & distribution use case, Docker was used to containerize different video services and showcase a scenario where a video service provider sets up a new video distribution service for end users. In the developed demonstrator, video is transcoded in real-time, streamed over a content delivery network (CDN), and accessed with a HbbTV compatible set-top box. Virtualizing different components of the processing and transmission chain significantly advanced the flexibility, time to market and scalability of video-on-demand (VoD) services.
For the multiparty video communications, a new motion adaptive layer selection algorithm was developed, which provides continuous video delivery and highly increased quality of experience (QoE), especially on high motion activity video streams. Furthermore, an adaptive approach was adopted, in which containers for video conferencing services are scaled based on the number of participants. Efforts in the video analysis were focused on the development of low-complexity algorithms and approaches based on neural networks that provide high accuracy. Specifically, an object tracking algorithm was developed that operates directly on compressed video data, and a new approach for object detection was developed that allows weakly-supervised training using transfer learning and synthetically generated training data. Several analysis algorithms were integrated into a virtualized platform for camera-based vehicle management in challenging parking lot environments.
Live demonstrators were showcased in both project-specific and public events. The VIRTUOSE consortium also actively disseminated the results in scientific, industrial and standardization forums.
Conclusion
VIRTUOSE contributed to several R&D areas, ranging from computing, telecommunication and image processing to artificial intelligence and neural networks, thanks to the wide coverage of the considered use cases. Development of a new low-latency video encoder for cloud gaming, VoD service streaming through CDN by using virtualized components for video encoding and distribution, introduction of a new motion adaptive layer selection algorithm for video conferencing and low complexity algorithms based on neural networks for video analysis were the main achievements. The project also conducted successful demonstration, dissemination and exploitation activities, including scientific and technical papers, patents applications, master and PhD studies and participation to a number of events and exhibitions.
› Further information
› VIRTUOSE project page – http://www.tut.fi/virtuose/
5G powered smart lighting in smart cities
SliceNet’s smart city pilot
Marius Iordache
Orange Romania
Christian Patachia
Orange Romania
The new 5G network system promises numerous advantages for a large number of vertical sector applications. Horizon 2020 project SliceNet has designed, implemented and executed a smart city pilot to showcase the advantages of network slicing, a new concept that has been introduced in the 5G system. Network slicing enables the operation of independent logical networks over the same physical network infrastructure.
Smart city applications include, among others, metering solutions for gas energy and water consumption, remote monitoring of city infrastructure like pollution, temperature, humidity and noise, real-time traffic information and control, city or building lights management and public safety alerts for improved emergency response times. The smart city pilot in SliceNet has defined a 5G network slicing architecture for the vertical’s smart lighting application as a solution for one of the many smart city applications.
Architecture of the pilot
The smart lighting pilot is based on an end-to-end sliced 5G architecture, vertical-oriented, technically supported through innovative network resources management, control and orchestration, enabled to support the service requirements by providing Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) service assurance through cognitive machine learning algorithms.
The pilot provides the transition from existing concepts of Internet of Things (IoT) implementations, such as those based on the low-power wide-area network protocol LoRa (Long Range) to standards based LTE-M/Nb-IoT and further to the new 5G network system for smart city use cases.
The pilot system is based on different ICT components and capabilities such as IoT applications and services, virtualised network infrastructure, virtualised network functions implementation, dynamic resources, slices and services orchestration, concurrent slices resources allocation, cognitive modules for QoS/QoE assurance and interfaces facilitating the interaction with the vertical application.
Using existing 4G network components, the pilot provides the possibility to instantiate end-to-end slices stretching from the users’ equipment, i.e. lighting poles, up to the IoT application running in a data centre, including all necessary network components that support the use case.
The key achievements, performance and business indicators (KPIs) are demonstrated in a real environment, integrating the technologies and demonstrating the capabilities and key innovative aspects of the project implementation, with a focus towards commercialization. The key aspects addressed by the smart lighting pilot are:
- Adopted model of 5G stakeholder roles and responsibilities, with the vertical stakeholder in the loop
- Time-to-market for business solution delivery
- Customer friendly usage
- Innovative programmable infrastructure deployment, resource, slice and services monitoring and exposure of collected data to the vertical application
- Service QoS/QoE KPIs assurance, metrics (bandwidth, delay, jitter, packet loss)
- Service provision in a massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) slice
- New operational model for deployment, operation and system service assurance
Deployment and measurements
The smart lighting pilot has been deployed and demonstrated in a real live scenario in Bucharest, Romania. A series of measurements have been conducted to obtain results about the potential capabilities of the system. The measured end-to-end latency is in the range of 27ms on average and well below the target key performance indicator for this application. The measured packet loss observed was 0{b28ae05319d94bff0b4d65c5a9f4524dd588360f05c61ef440e1608e0a1c4144}. Longer-term measurements under a larger variety of configurations have to be conducted, in order to add more realism to the estimation of service reliability.
Impacts
The pilot has important societal and business impacts. The system integration and use case piloting in a real environment provided a basis for wide communication of the potential through Orange’s Romania ties into industry, academic institutes, media and last but not least the city hall. The Orange Fab programme provides the co-innovation environment to channel the results to start-ups and other partners.
Commercialisation opportunities emerge for the whole service, i.e. the smart lighting application or parts thereof such as the programmable infrastructure the service is based upon, the vertical application orchestrator, or the vertical API.
A video summarises the smart lighting application (https://youtu.be/zmxJbxpSTYQ).
Collaboration in the 5G PPP
The pilot provided a unique 5G PPP collaboration opportunity between the projects SliceNet and Matilda. Together the two projects provided a holistic, innovative framework for the design, development, life-cycle-management and orchestration of 5G-ready applications and the related network services. The whole system is based on a programmable infrastructure, virtual network functions and network services, the 5G-ready applications and application components all available through a 5G marketplace. The collaboration showcased how this innovative smart lighting application is deployed from the 5G marketplace into the infrastructure.
Standardisation
It has been clear from the start that the solution must be standards based. Where standards do not exist or are not mature enough yet, the project actively engaged with the relevant bodies and contributed in shaping standards as follows:
- ETSI Work Item for “PoC proposal for Predictive Fault management of E2E Multi-domain Network Slices” (using a smart grid use case as an example);
- ITU-T Work Item for “Vertical-assisted Network Slicing Based on a Cognitive Framework” (using an eHealth use case as an example);
- ITU-T Work Item for “Anomaly prediction and integration for eHealth use case based on vertical feedback” (using an eHealth use case as an example);
- ITU-T Work Item for “Noisy neighbour detection and integration in a virtualized infrastructure” (using a smart city use case as an example);
- ITU-T Work Item for “Machine learning based end-to-end network orchestration and network slice management” (across use cases).
Outlook
Smart cities will make significant use of 5G capabilities to improve their services for citizens. SliceNet piloted and validated business opportunities relying on 5G features like network slicing, flexible network management and provision of mMTC and enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services at scale. It implemented a closed-loop cognition-based autonomous network slice control, management and orchestration framework.
Further information
SliceNet project website – https://slicenet.eu
4KREPROSYS
4K ultra-HD TV wireless remote production systems
Romuald Mosqueron
HEIG-VD/REDS
Marco Mattavelli
SCI-STI-MM/EPFL
The CELTIC project 4KREPROSYS developed a new integrated cost-effective approach for the production of 4K TV content. The solution is capable of covering the needs from indoor studio production up to difficult mobile outdoor production at large events. High-performance video compression for low-bandwidth usage, remote production capabilities and “all-IP” connectivity are the principle of the solution.
The production system was built by developing an integrated IP-based wireless system that can be used in the event production venues to capture audio-visual content in HD and Ultra-High Definition (UHD), including High Dynamic Range (HDR) formats ideal for covering large-scale sporting events, which require high outdoor mobility, with state-of-the-art image quality.
Main goals
The evolution of multimedia content and associated services towards improved user experience must rely on higher resolutions and more immersive and interactive formats. However, this is only possible if the production of such contents is economically viable and fully compatible and scalable with the production of traditional content formats. Previous production technologies and systems were the results of an “ad-hoc patchwork” of different components based on often non-compatible or non-appropriate legacy technologies that need to be integrated with difficulties and deployed in the field with very heavy and costly logistic means. New emerging and powerful technologies such as MPEG HEVC video compression, Internet/IP based wired and wireless connectivity with high bandwidth and low latencies, provided the motivation to re-think and re-design the essential components of TV content production infrastructures in a unified integrated approach.
The project focused its investigations and developments on the integration of MPEG HEVC and IP-based communications carrying content and service signals for both wireless and wired production components. The goals were to study, develop and experiment in the field production systems that support high performance (i.e. very high bitrates) for high-quality UHD and advanced multi-view formats, including high robustness for reaching high levels of reliability for indoor and highly mobile outdoor settings. Major challenges were to implement very powerful processing systems in compact and battery-operated assemblies. Moreover, the systems were required to answer to the new location approach of the TV studio infrastructure, traditionally deployed in the field, which is becoming a “virtual” component that can be locally or remotely deployed according to the best logistic (i.e. economical) solution for the specific production operation.
New HEVC low-delay wireless system used during FIFA world cup
Approach
The technologies developed to design the new 4K production systems are:
› Ultra-low latency MPEG HEVC encoding and decoding (the only compression standard that provides the necessary performance to compress 4K TV signals to reasonable bitrates with full studio quality).
› Low-latency IP-based wired and wireless communication links for local and remote production for both audio-video UHD and service signals.
› Low latency switching and synchronization of compressed streams without packet loss for the mixing and multiplexing of wired and wireless content and service streams.
› Low-latency content protection for on-line encryption of compressed streams.
Main results
The new audio-video codecs and wireless transmitters developed by the project made possible to master a complete RF recording & transmission infrastructure supporting 4UHD resolution. Another innovation on the production side was the approach based on integration and transmission of IP signals for both content and services. Multiplexing of audio, video and service data managed at the very beginning of the chain enabled the reduction of the number of frequencies needed for production events. By realizing robust and reliable bi-directional full-IP connectivity, the project has made it possible to deploy production configurations with full remote studio control.
Applied to a post-production distribution chain, the technologies developed in 4KReProSys can also be used for increasing QoE in broadcast services and support new contribution concepts.
Conclusion and outlook
The major result of the project is a fully integrated production system, controlled by a remote studio via a low-band width communication infrastructure, for the production of UHD TV resolutions capable of covering highly mobile outdoor sport events. In July 2018, AMP-VISUAL-TV was able to set up and manage with full success the transmission of all wireless 4K cameras used for one month to cover 12 stadiums during the FIFA World Cup event in Russia.
The most visible European business perspective will be the possibility of all television and production companies to profit from the new 4K wireless and all-IP production capabilities associated to the new low-bandwidth remote production possibilities.
For the results achieved, the 4KReProSys consortium won a prestigious European distinction, the CELTIC Excellence Award for Multimedia.
› Further information
› 4KReProSys project page – https://www.celticnext.eu/project-4kreprosys/