Tuesday 29 November 2022
Divani Caravel

Research-oriented Workshop:

“Research Projects for creating the Future and Innovative Telecoms Market”

 

Organized and coordinated by:

Dr. Ioannis P. Chochliouros

Telecommunications Engineer, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Member of IPv6 Hall of Fame

 

Head of Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE)

 

Τel.: (+30) 210-6114651

Email: ichochliouros@oteresearch.gr

 

Preface:

 

5G is envisioned to be the first global technology standard that will address the variety of future use cases of the energy sector, by ensuring that both the radio and core network performance requirements can be met in terms of end-to-end latency, reliability and availability. Up-to-now, the main discussion for 5G has been to support the next wave of smart grid features and efficiency at the behind-the-meter level, by integrating many low-voltage devices into the power grid through low-cost connections, managing demand and load balance domestically, aiming the reduction of the electricity peaks and energy costs. However, it is expected that, as the emergence of smart grids will grow, a lion share of the growth will take place in the medium-voltage levels, that is: towards secondary substations and distributed energy resources, as well as between secondary substations and primary substation.

The smart grid concept and its deployment environment(s) are aiming to increase efficiency, resilience, reliability and security of the evolved and greener power grids, by means of increased digital automation and control. In this respect, the traditional power grids need to be complemented with advanced communication and information technologies, targeting to achieve efficiency and security, in a way that will “reshape” the modern landscape in the energy vertical. With the development of smart grids, existing power networks fell short of the demanding requirements of industrial applications, especially with respect to bandwidth, end-to-end latency and reliability. Combining with vertical industry is a major development direction of 5G mobile communication technology, while its communication capacity of large bandwidth, low latency, high reliability as well as massive connection is “matched” with the service requirements of smart grid service. The Fifth Generation (5G) of communication networks provides the right features to allow the power grid to tackle the above-mentioned challenges. It is envisioned that 5G networks will play a significant role in the power grid transformation to enable better efficiency, observability, and controllability of the power system, especially at the distribution side, where the number of monitoring devices and remote automation equipment is expected to dramatically increase.

In this scope, Smart5Grid aims to revolutionize the Energy Vertical industry through the successful establishment of four fundamental functions of modern smart grids, offering novel opportunities in the respective market sector, especially via the introduction of an open 5G experimental facility, supporting integration, testing and validation of existing and new 5G services and NetApps from third parties, since underpinning experimentation with a fully softwarised 5G platform for the energy vertical industry is one of the key targets of the proposal. Moreover, in order to supply start-ups and newcomers with the opportunity to accelerate their growth in the high impact industry of the energy vertical, Smart5Grid aims to provide an open access NetApp repository, provisioning support and assistance to third parties through a clear and trustworthy experimentation roadmap.

 

 

Seaports are key components of logistic and transport chains and imply for complex ecosystems where many players with different interests “interact and operate” in an intricate network of stakeholders. Additionally, the shipping industry is facing some important challenges in the next future with a slower sea trade growth, a regional trade transformation, shipyard capacity management and the zero emissions agenda. Vessels with increasing sizes and cargo volumes add pressure to ports and terminals operations, and competition among different ports and operators has intensified in the last years. Shipping containers have produced a revolution in the movement of goods driving efficiency throughout the global supply chain and contributing to the market globalisation. Yet, the transport industry agrees that next revolution in container handling will be container terminal automation. However, only a small amount of container terminals around the world are already automated today. In order to deal with such complexity and challenges, ports have gone through a structural and functional evolution over the past decades, mainly supported by ICT enablers, thus leading to a digital transformation by embracing innovative technologies (such as development and deployment of connected platforms, software platforms for the management of freight forwarders, sensors and IoT devices monitoring their assets, cloud based services, mobile devices and apps, etc.). The expansion of modern 5G systems further supports this transition.

Today, hundreds of different European seaports collaborate with each other, exchanging different digital data from several data sources. However, to achieve efficient collaboration and benefit from modern Artificial Intelligence- (AI-) based technology, especially within a fully converged 5G operating environment, a new integrating environment is needed. To this end, the DataPorts project promotes the design, implementation and full operation of an Industrial Data Platform that: (i) connects to the different digital infrastructures currently existing in digital seaports, thus enabling the interconnection of a wide variety of systems into a tightly integrated ecosystem; (ii) sets the policies for a trusted and reliable data sharing and trading based on data owners rules and, consequently, offering a clear value proposition, and; (iii) leverages on the data collected to provide advanced Data Analytic services based on which the different actors in the port value chain could develop novel AI and cognitive applications. The DataPorts project involves the design and implementation of the platform, its deployment in two relevant European seaports (Thessaloniki-Greece and Valencia-Spain) connecting to their existing digital infrastructures and addressing specific local constraints, a global use case involving these two ports and other actors and targeting inter-port objectives, and all the actions to foster the adoption of the platform at European level. A variety of tools, platforms and systems running in the different seaports all across Europe will benefit from the DataPorts industrial data platform, in order to create an even more trusted, reliable and efficient way of conducting businesses in Europe and to reinforce the European Single Market.

 

 

5G changes the landscape of mobile networks in a profound way, with an evolved architecture supporting unprecedented capacity, spectral efficiency, and increased flexibility. Moreover, 5G adopts Edge Computing as a key paradigm, evolving from centralized architectures (e.g., based on Centralised Radio Access Network (C-RAN) towards multiple tiers of Edge nodes and a virtualized RAN (vRAN)). Open RAN initiatives, such as O-RAN, have a key role in this evolution, complementing the 3GPP 5G standards with a foundation of vRAN network elements. However, these technologies have been in large developed in isolation between them, making difficult to fully exploit their capabilities in an integrated, end-to-end (E2E) and secure manner. Algorithms do not only run in the cloud, and optical and wireless links cannot be abstracted in the same way. On top of this, when going to cell-free networking concepts, more nodes and links will be interconnected, serving local and global secure applications, and thus, within the context of B5G/6G networks, it is essential to rethink the architecture and algorithms running elastically at the scale of a city or building level.

5G mobile networks will be soon available to handle all types of applications and to provide service to massive numbers of users. In this quite complex and dynamic network ecosystem, an end-to-end performance analysis and optimization will be assessed as “key features”, with the aim of effectively managing diverse requirements imposed by multiple vertical industries over the same shared infrastructure. To enable such a vision, the MARSAL project targets the development and evaluation of a complete framework for the management and orchestration of network resources in “5G and beyond”, by utilizing a converged optical-wireless network infrastructure in the access and fronthaul/midhaul segments. At the network design domain, MARSAL targets the development of novel cell-free based solutions that allows the significant scaling up of the wireless Access Points (APs) in a cost-effective and near-zero latency manner by exploiting the application of the distributed cell-free concept and of the serial fronthaul approach, while contributing innovative functionalities to the Open-Radio Access Network (O-RAN) project. In parallel, in the fronthaul/midhaul segments MARSAL aims to radically increase the flexibility of optical access architectures for Beyond-5G Cell Site connectivity via different levels of fixed-mobile convergence. At the network and service management domain, the design philosophy of MARSAL is to provide a comprehensive framework for the management of the entire set of communication and computational network resources by exploiting novel Machine Learning- (ML-) based algorithms of both edge and midhaul Data Centres (DCs), by incorporating the Virtual Elastic DCs/Infrastructures paradigm. Finally, at the network security domain, MARSAL aims to introduce mechanisms that provide privacy and security to application workload and data, targeting to allow applications and users to maintain control over their data when relying on the deployed shared infrastructures, while AI (Artificial intelligence) and Blockchain technologies will be developed in order to guarantee a secured multi-tenant slicing environment.

In conclusion, MARSAL proposes a new paradigm of elastic virtual infrastructures that integrate in a transparent manner a variety of novel radio access, networking, management and security technologies, developed to deliver end-to-end transfer, processing and storage services in an efficient and secured way.

 

 

Among the high priorities of the European 5G vision has been about how “5G can empower vertical industries” closer to deployment with innovative digital use cases, involving cross industry partnerships. This, however, has required for explicit technological and business validation of 5G end-to-end (E2E) connectivity and associated management, from two separate perspectives, that is: (i) within the set of requirements specific from one application domain, and; (ii) across all sets of heterogeneous requirements stemming from concurrent usages of network resources, by different vertical domains. The corresponding European initiatives have been about realizing trials of various scales, depending on the target technology, in view of demonstrating that performance conforming to 5G-PPP KPIs requirements are properly “met” in the context of specific vertical use cases. Target 5G technologies and architectures had to support specific performance requirements stemming from the considered vertical use cases. To this aim, 5G technology and architecture trials have also targeted concurrent usage of resources by multiple verticals, addressing the three (-3-) classes of ITU requirements (i.e., eMBB (enhance Mobile Broadband), mMTC (massive Machine-Type Communications) and URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications) use cases). In practice, the 5G infrastructure (RAN, back/fronthaul, Core) have been shared among multiple verticals and applications, each asking for independent service guarantees and very different service requirements. Operations of one application in one vertical domain should have been such as not to affect the performance of other domains/applications. Related trials have demonstrated that 5G architecture and technologies (notably slicing and virtualisation) enabling multi domain management of resources, beyond the ETSI NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) and with cross domain orchestration capabilities are in line with these concurrent performance requirements.

Proposed solutions have presented the high level of innovation on how 5G networks can be used to provide useful services that will “change our way of living, open new business opportunities for Europe and create new jobs across all the vertical sectors”. 5G networks not only have been proved as “faster and more reliable networks”, but have also brought on a level of flexibility in the deployment of new services which have a diverse set of characteristics. In this scope, of particular interest have been the cases of 5G-HEART, 5G-TOURS and 5G-VICTORI projects, each one promoting specific aspects, covering three (-3-) among the eight (-8-) EU projects dedicated to this purpose.

 

 

5G offers significant prospects for a range of new technologies and hardware devices to enter the market and to create economic opportunities for new and innovative market actors at multiple levels, also promoting strong synergetic actions. An appearing challenge is hence to reap the fruits of earlier R&D investments in these enabling technologies so that to support the emergence of new markets and new market actors, able to cover novel requirements. Some indicative “key” 5G technological blocks can include, among others, phase array antenna, array processors, millimetre wave devices and subsystems, photonics-based devices, baseband processor platforms, low-cost access points, new generation of 5G terminals notably for future Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM), in order to provide opportunities for innovative high-tech SMEs access to new markets through pilot validation of promising solutions. Special emphasis may be put on new types of IoT (Internet of Things) devices demonstrating the use of 5G connectivity functionalities by addressing requirements of one or several vertical industry sectors. In this framework, corresponding actions can go beyond individual components and “address” integration and validation of technologies as part of an overall architecture representing a subset of 5G network functions. Their added value is in the validation of the target component as part of its integration into an overall architecture representing a subset of 5G network functions. Another network-/services-oriented important challenge is about qualifying and characterizing latest versions of 5G specifications in the context of advanced use cases deployment of CAM that may also benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. This practically refers to specific use cases beyond C-ITS (Connected Intelligent Transport Systems) safety applications in view of enabling use cases in the context of complete connectivity-enabled ecosystems around cars and vehicles. This, in particular, can support the effort towards establishing major transport paths covered with 5G connectivity through cross-border trials along major transport paths planned for CAM deployment (e.g. via dedicated “5G corridors”) and so paves the way towards operational deployment. Dealing with the above framework, results from latest EU-funded research projects have also been selected to be discussed, relevant to the indicative cases of 5G-ROUTES, Affordable5G and NEMO projects, via the promotion of corresponding innovative features, per case. Another important challenge is about using “Digital Twins” with Embedded AI and IoT for Smart Cities, especially for the support of vertical applications.

 

 

Among the essential priorities of the European ICT market is to support the development and operation of experimentation facilities able to provide enhanced experimentation infrastructures on top of which third party experimenters (e.g. SMEs or any service provider and target vertical users) will have the opportunity to test their applications in an integrated, open, cooperative and fully featured network platform running across multiple domains where needed, and tailored to specific vertical use cases.

The vital objective is to focus on innovation for operations and secure/trusted service provisioning, taking advantage of experimental facilities featuring virtualised and software implemented functions and representative of a redesigned virtualised access/core network. Such facilities will offer major opportunities for SMEs and developers to experiment their applications in the context of specific vertical use cases on open experimental network platforms, and to create 5G open source repositories for wide use and towards standards development. Typical vertical use cases can include connected and automated mobility, smart factories and industry 4.0 use cases, healthcare, Public protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR), energy, media though other verticals, and many more.

In this approach, software networks can provide high flexibility through implementation of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), with the latter being appropriately chained across several domains so that to create Network Applications (NetApps) tailored to the requirements of specific tenants. This purely implicates for open platforms providing access to networks resources which can then be used to develop NetApps supporting requirements and developments from specific vertical sectors. As a consequence, testing and validation of NetApp solutions on top of a 5G virtualised experimental environment with different implemented functions and vertical-specific configurations becomes fundamental for creating market potential. In the specific 2020-ICT-41 Call, the European Commission has so supported dedicate innovations for verticals with third party services, in the scope of nine (-9-) projects, each one covering specific aspects of vertical sectors. The Smart5Grid and 5G-INDUCE projects are specifically assessed and discussed in dedicated sections of the present Workshops. However, three (-3-) more projects form the original corresponding set have been discussed for further discussion, that is: (i) The 5GMediaHub project, intending to propose a 5G experimentation environment dedicated for media services; (ii) the EVOLVED-5G project, focusing on aspects about experimentation and validation openness for long-term evolution of vertical industries in 5G era and beyond, and; (iii) The VITAL-5G project, having the vision to advance the offered Transport & Logistics (T&L) services by engaging significant logistics stakeholders (such as sea and river port authorities, road logistics operators, warehouse/hub logistic operators, etc.) as well as innovative SMEs and offering them an open and secure virtualized 5G environment to test, validate and verify their T&L related cutting-edge Network Applications.

 

 

Following to the previous section, the success of 5G technologies depends closely on their ability to attract vertical stakeholders, seeking the move of their services from cloud to the edge to meet unique KPIs. In this framework, Industry 4.0 originally relies on locally installed smart IoT monitoring and automated control technologies, while smartly interconnected and collaborating infrastructures can offer more advanced capabilities such as in manufacturing process optimization, in the supply chain optimization and in the provision of added value services (maintenance, surveillance, security, safety, etc.). To face these challenges, 5G appears as a critical enabler in order to meet related industry requirements about latency, bandwidth and modularity, and; to ensure the establishment of an overall framework platform for the porting and deployment of advance applications.

The 5G-INDUCE project is based on the belief that such attractiveness requires vertical stakeholders and NetApp developers to be able to smoothly deploy and manage applications in distributed 5G network environments, in a secure fashion and with strict KPI requirements. The NetApp term is defined as the set of networked virtualizable functions being either application-driven functions (i.e., software components) or network service functions (in support of an application use case), that are deployed and linked together over the infrastructure, according to specific end-user resource requests and deployment policies. The NetApps are managed by the 5G-INDUCE orchestration platform through the NetApp Orchestrator (NAO) and the Operation Support System (OSS) modules. The NAO is responsible for the deployment and real-time management of NetApps.

The 5G-INDUCE project builds the enabling open and cooperative 5G network platforms that will allow the showcasing and evaluation of advanced network applications (NetApps) developed primarily by innovative SMEs, supporting emerging, as well as innovative services related to the industry 4.0 environment. The project is based on the solid knowhow and the complete 5G application and network orchestration platforms from successfully demonstrated 5G-PPP research activities and combines them with already deployed and mature 5G experimentation infrastructures, interconnected with private infrastructures from the industry sector. The goal is to provide realistic experimentation facilities for the seamless deployment of network functions, forming the building blocks of market oriented industrial NetApps, while providing an attractive platform for service providers seeking to advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of their network functions and NetApps to 7 before commercialization.

 

 

The long term transformation of 5G/B5G networks into a distributed smart connectivity platform with high integration with (edge) computing and storage resources implicates for a high dynamism. Related solutions are so expected, with processes and applications being dynamically supported, depending on the information flows and application requirements. Research initiatives will enable novel interaction between human and digital systems based on new terminal types embedded in the daily environment, e.g. in cars, doors, mirrors, appliances, and new interfaces recognising gestures, facial expressions, sound and haptics. Progress will lead to smart connectivity infrastructure with adaptive topologies able to support a virtually infinite capacity and perceived zero latency, highly diverse device densities and highest reliability and availability. This will also lead to professional grade of security and privacy whilst bringing down OPEX, CAPEX and energy consumption. Specific focus can be, for example, upon: provision of seemingly infinite network capacity including innovative spectrum use and management also including scalable cell-free Massive MIMO, usage integration and optimised management of optical resources; support for imperceptible latencies through flexible connect-compute technologies and architectures; provision for smart connectivity of massive amounts of things and systems in a scalable, interoperable and cost-efficient way with energy efficiency perspectives; support for novel architectures and protocols for adaptive networks, including peer-to-peer, meshed and relay-based, for new mobility paradigms, taking advantage when relevant of cognitive operations making use of AI and ML mechanisms, and; provision of personalised, multi-tenant and perpetual protection based on security, privacy and trust mechanisms required in highly virtualised and software environments (blockchain technologies may be explored in that context).

To better depict this layout, some indicative projects have been selected as follows: (i) The AI@Edge project proposes the context of a secure and reusable AI Platform for Edge Computing in B5G Networks. (ii) The MonB5G project supports a modern framework for realizing zero-touch management and orchestration for 5G LTE (Long Term Evolution) and Beyond. (iii) The ENCRYPT project effort is oriented towards a scalable and practical privacy-preserving framework”. (iv) The OCTAPUS project promotes an innovative view on building the next generation Central Office (CO) in B5G.

 

 

Modern ICT-based solutions can influence quality of life and significantly enhance wellbeing of citizens, at various levels.

Today we are experiencing the digital transformation happening with an unprecedented pace, with the community constantly researching on new solutions to support this transformation with ample computational power and connectivity. Towards addressing such research efforts, Research Infrastructure (RI) specific to addressing digital sciences research efforts have been deployed worldwide, towards trying to address key aspects contrary to off-the-shelf commercial infrastructure such as: (i) Full control over the parameters of an experiment; (ii) repeatable experiments regardless of the physical infrastructure; (iii) valid experimental results, easy to cross-reference and replicate. As such, several RIs have emerged, offering experimentation services with bleeding edge resources, that otherwise are only offered only in industrial R&D laboratories, with limited functionality. Towards combating these issues, the SLICES-SC context aims to provide high quality experimentation services with emerging technologies around the area of digital sciences (5G/6G, NFV, IoT and Cloud Computing), in an Internet scale setup.

Earth Observation (EO) offers numerous benefits to improve quality of life for citizens. Observing the environment from space, from the ground and from mobile platforms provides a constant and consistent flow of information about the health of the planet, the changing climate and the human activities and their impacts. By supporting related program (such as the GEO initiative and the Copernicus programme) and by funding related research activities (such as those in Horizon 2020), the EU is actively contributing to worldwide efforts to build a global observation network. The D2EPC project supports options for the next generation of dynamic Energy performance Certificates (EPCs) for buildings, by setting its foundations on the smart-readiness level of buildings and the corresponding data collection infrastructure and management systems and by adopting the “digital twin” concept to advance building information modeling and calculate a novel set of energy, environmental, financial and human comfort/wellbeing indicators.

The euPOLIS project supports experts taking the best from nature’s ways to regulate and improve biodiversity by incorporating various BLUE (water) and GREEN (plant life) aspects of nature into urban open spaces where it can intensify people’s wellbeing in terms of climate, ecological and socio-economic conditions. The philosophy is deeply grounded in the extensive and permanent citizens’ participation in urban-planning processes.

The euPOLIS project supports experts taking the best from nature’s ways to regulate and improve biodiversity by incorporating various Blue (water) and Green (plant life) aspects of nature into urban open spaces where it can intensify people’s wellbeing in terms of climate, ecological and socio-economic conditions. The philosophy is deeply grounded in the extensive and permanent citizens’ participation in urban-planning processes.

The HEART project aims to systematically improve urban health and reduce health disparities through an innovative “Blue-Green-Solutions”-based implementation mechanisms of urban planning that embraces and promotes the health and the wellbeing as a key-planning criterion.

The HARMONIA project provides a resilience assessment platform to help urban stakeholders understand and quantify Climate Change (CC) effects. Based on satellite and auxiliary data, the HARMONIA platform aims to offer a user-friendly knowledge base, dispensing detailed information on a local neighborhood and street level. This will support local decision making and foster a wide range of applications dedicated to climate adaptation and mitigation, such as carbon capture and storage technologies.

Through its active participation to EU-funded and national-funded projects, the Municipality of Egaleo (MoE) in Attica, Greece, has the opportunity to offer Egaleo’s citizens the 5G experience together with other innovative “outcomes” intending to support offering of novel services directly to the citizens as end-users. The deployment of 5G facilities in Egaleo make ways to revamp and upgrade MoE’s public infrastructures, through the establishment of a smart grid that will connect all infrastructure needs via Internet of Things (IoT). This will result in the adequate management of services like public street lighting, controlling the congestion of traffic through offering alternative routes in the phones of citizens, monitoring the quality of air in municipal buildings and moderate noise levels, more efficient energy consumption, waste and water management. Such services can interact with the smartphones of citizens allowing the latter to communicate directly with the relevant municipality’s Administration Departments to resolve relevant issues. Furthermore, the communication and connection opportunities offered by 5G networks will reinforce the local economy by offering pivotal growth opportunities for local businesses in the municipality. Last but not least, 5G will also result to the vast improvement of the way of living for the citizens of Egaleo. Citizens will have more impact on the city’s governance through their enhanced online communication with the relevant services of Egaleo.

 

 

Following to the above discussion, the present Workshop entitled as “Projects for creating the Future and Innovative Telecoms Market” within the framework of the Infocom World 2022 Conference and Exhibition aims to deal with several potential challenges rising from ongoing EU-funded research (i.e., either specific projects or wider frameworks) allowing to identify and assess corresponding network and services solutions, especially from the 5G operational framework, that will boost the telecommunications market to higher levels and promote innovation and growth.

 

 

The Workshop is organized in nine (-9-) distinct Sessions, so that to present both the scope and results of related 5G EU-funded projects as well as to identify further opportunities for growth. There are strong conceptual interactivities and common “grounds” between the thematic contexts of these sessions. The proposed distinction can be assessed as “indicative” and as “oriented to related ongoing EU topics”, following the current 5G-PPP/H2020 and/or SNS framework.

 

Session 1 aims to focus upon 5G as an enabler for supporting development and further extension of modern smart grids, thus creating opportunities for investments and growth in the energy vertical market. Based on the framework of the actual Smart5Grid project, this session discusses the proposed use cases with direct market impact covering a diverse set of applications, several among the essential modules of the corresponding innovative architecture as well as some proposed NetApps to be used by third parties. 5G networks constitute an important ingredient for the development of smart grid technologies, allowing the grid to “adapt better” to the dynamics of renewable energy and distributed generation. Smart grid capabilities promise to control easier bi-directional power flows and to monitor, control, and support distributed energy resources.

The 5G mobile networks will help to integrate previously unconnected devices to smart grids for accurate monitoring and improved forecasting of their energy needs. Managing energy demand will become more efficient, requiring less investments, as the smart grid will be able to balance easier the energy load, to reduce electricity peaks, and ultimately, to reduce energy costs. 5G shall enable better efficiency, observability and controllability of the power system, especially at the distribution side. Energy suppliers will be able to collect and store power grid related data at much faster rates, ensuring secure and stable power supply, while risk mitigation and fault management will become simple and more straightforward.

In this session, specific emphasis is given about potential opportunities offered to serve both energy market operators (Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and Distribution System Operators (DSOs)) and telecom market operators providing 5G, as in cases describing: (i) Real-time Wide Area Monitoring between Greece and Bulgaria and; (ii) Millisecond Level Precise Distributed Generation Monitoring and Maintenance in Renewable Energy Resources (RES) Installations.

 

Session 2 emphasizes on the case of “smart ports of the future” in the era of 5G and beyond, taking into account all potential evolutionary processes and convergence aspects at various levels. The main focus is about the framework provided by the ongoing DataPorts project, supporting the transition of European seaports from connected and digital to smart and cognitive.

This becomes feasible via the provision/establishment of a secure environment for the aggregation and integration of data coming from the several data sources existing in the digital ports and owned by different stakeholders, so that the whole port community could get real value from in order to improve their processes, offer new services and devise new AI based and data driven business models. In this scope, the DataPorts platform aims at providing to seaports a secure and private aware-environment where data coming from different sources can be shared by the stakeholders in a trusted and reliable way, in order to get real value from those data, providing a set of novel AI and cognitive tools to the wider port community. This session introduces the essential features and the “core” concept of the DataPorts effort, via identifying opportunities for growth with corresponding business models to serve this market. Then the session discusses the fundamental coreor pickup use case, as container loading and discharge is a core port activity for the port of Thessaloniki, in Greece. Another important aspect is about the discussion of the data governance Minimum Viable Product (MVP), via the provision of a dedicated blockchain (BC) network in which DataPorts participants can trust to upload datasets information and consume datasets. Emphasis is also put upon several proposed data and interoperability services via the assessment of data virtualization, offering a data integration technique with many benefits and wide range of applicability.

 

Session 3 covers the innovative scope of the ongoing MARSAL project, especially focusing on the development of Machine Learning-based solutions towards Beyond 5G (B5G). The recent 5G deployment changes the landscape of mobile networks in a profound way at global level, with an evolved architecture supporting unprecedented capacity, spectral efficiency and increased flexibility. Actual challenges implicate for a future network (unified and hierarchical) infrastructure being able to: (i) support multiple distributed edge nodes and a huge number of access points, coordinated and orchestrated by entities in a low-cost and near-zero latency manner; (ii) provide an intelligent management of communication, computation and storage resources, which can be further enhanced by incorporating efficient ML algorithms, and; (iii) support multiple tenants via the application of appropriate mechanisms to guarantee data and information security and integrity, which would play a vital role in enabling various use-cases and industry verticals targeted in B5G systems. This session provides a reliable and detailed introduction to the overall MARSAL context, discussing proposed use cases and related requirements. Going a step further and with the aim of being able to reliably assess the proposed innovative features, we discuss corresponding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as selected to be aligned the fundamental architectural pillars of the project. Then the session discusses the specific context of the ML-based Cell-Free (CF) support in the Open-Ran (ORAN) architecture, as promoted by the MARSAL context for the development of B5G/6G networks. The session concludes with a presentation dedicated to optical networks based on the corresponding project’s architectural novel approach, aiming to support the effort for achieving digitisation of society.

 

Session 4 has been structured so that to discuss advanced 5G validation trials in market verticals. The ongoing 5G evolution is built on strong beliefs in benefits from new applications, with many specific use cases coming from verticals. Bidirectional communications between vertical industries and the 5G community have proven important for filtering the use cases with most value for the verticals. Thus, the building of sustainable business cases is based on the identification of the problems verticals are facing worthwhile to be solved and through the validation of solutions based on distinctive 5G capabilities. The support of the vertical industries also requires various architectural enhancements, needed to enable the enhanced performance of mobile networks as well as the required flexibility to adapt to diverse requirements imposed by the verticals.

In this session we have selected to discuss some validated core 5G technologies and architectures in the context of specific vertical use cases and deployment scenarios as well as with the particular aim of differentiated performance requirements originating from eMBB, mMTC, URLL use cases, notably for end-to-end slicing and virtualisation. Several of the proposed, per case, solutions have been implemented, tested and validated through large-scale trials and pilots. Our approach has been based upon the framework of:

(i) The 5G-TOURS project, for the provision of efficient and reliable close-to-commercial services for tourists, citizens and patients in three different types of cities: (a) the safe city with the demonstration of e-health use cases; (b) the touristic city focused on media and broadcast use cases, and; (c) the mobility-efficient city that brings 5G to users in motion as well as to transport-related service providers. The fundamental feature of the 5G-TOURS concept is the dynamic use of the network to seamlessly provide different types of services adapted to the specific needs of individual use cases.

(ii) The 5G-HEART project, being about healthcare, transport and aquaculture verticals, all being hugely important in Europe in terms of jobs, size, export trade and also from a social perspective. 5G is important for these verticals, in terms of improvements for utility, efficient processes, safety among others. Various innovations have been demonstrated such as: slicing as a service; resource orchestration in access/core and cloud/edge segments with live user environments. Novel applications and devices have also been devised.

(iii) The 5G-VICTORI project, aiming to transform power utilities into smart factories, by specifically focusing on transportation, energy, media and factories of the future and cross-vertical use cases. 5G-VICTORI’s platform aims to transform current closed, purposely developed and dedicated infrastructures into open environments where resources and functions are exposed to ICT and vertical industries through common vertical and non-vertical specific repositories.

 

Session 5 is tailored to refer to innovative challenges for 5G core technologies and Connected Automated Mobility (CAM). The large-scale rollout of 5G networks has started becoming a reality, with big vendors deploying 5G network equipment and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) being on the verge of its commercialization. However, in parallel to the deployment of such 5G high-performing network, there is an unprecedented urge to support solutions tailored to specific types of networks, capable of offering ubiquitous coverage with high data rate availability, densification and high capillarity of access points to enhance 5G system capacity.

The Affordable5G project aims at creating a 5G network to deliver a complete and affordable solution covering the needs of private and enterprise networks through technical innovation that span across all parts of 5G network, leveraging cell densification,    Radio Unit (RU) / Distributed Unit (DU) / Central Unit (CU) split, hardware acceleration, edge computing and core network virtualization, seamlessly combined with the adoption of open source RAN, MEC (Multi-Access Edge Computing) and MANO (Management and Orchestration) solutions, for cloud-native, micro-service based deployments. Proposed solutions are evaluated and validated in two vertical pilots, related to emergency communications and smart cities.

Validation of the latest available 5G specifications in the context of innovative CAM applications under realistic conditions and seamlessly functioning across borders constitutes a high challenge for the global market sector. This can be realised in a variety of trials, for example along with dedicated 5G corridors, covering significant portions of roads or railways and including the core 5G/B5G technological innovation. Relevant works can take a broad innovation perspective covering use cases in selected V2X (Vehicle to Everything) domains, including the supporting service infrastructure. In the present session, the framework of the 5G-ROUTES project is presented and evaluated, under realistic conditions. The project conducts advanced large-scale field trials of most representative CAM applications to demonstrate seamless functionality across a prominent 5G cross-border corridor (Via Baltica-North), thus helping to boost confidence and accelerating the deployment of 5G-based interoperable CAM ecosystems and services throughout Europe.

In a wider scope and focusing on verticals, the NEMO project is also discussed. The project aims to establish itself as the game changer of AIoT-Edge-Cloud Continuum by introducing an open source, flexible, adaptable, cybersecure and multi-technology meta-Operating System, sustainable during and after the end of its work. NEMO will be validated in 5 most prominent industrial sectors (i.e. Farming, Energy, Mobility/City, Industry 4.0 and Media/Extended Reality (XR)) and 8 use cases in 6 Living Labs, utilizing more than 30 heterogeneous IoT devices and real 5G infrastructure. The impact will be important in data economy and applications verticals, in particular.

Taking into account opportunities raising from AI- and IoT-based facilities in smart environments, such as those of smart cities, “Digital Twins” may be used in real time and being regularly synchronized with the corresponding physical system. These can offer effective solutions guaranteeing for agility, flexibility and scalability, effectively implementing 5G innovation.

 

Session 6 is about discussing challenges towards promoting 5G innovations for verticals with third party services, via the design, establishment, deployment, operation and validation of dedicated open platforms; these will be capable of providing access to networks resources used to develop suitable NetApps, on top of 5G virtualised experimental environments to support requirements and developments from specific vertical sectors. This session specifically focuses on (-3-) among the nine (-9-) fundamental European projects of the corresponding initiative (as there are dedicated and separate sessions for the cases of Smart5Grid and 5G-INDUCE), dealing with the energy, the Industry 4.0 and the Transport & Logistics verticals, correspondingly). Thus the present session discusses:

(i) The case of the 5GMediaHub project, by accelerating the testing and validation of innovative 5G-empowered media applications and corresponding NetApps. This project 5GMediaHUB aims to build and operate an elastic, secure and trusted multi-tenant service execution and NetApps development environment based on an open cloud-based architecture and Application programming Interfaces (APIs), offering various benefits to the involved actors.

(ii) The case of the EVOLVED-5G project, where there are contributions towards the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) by bringing innovative use cases and creating a fertile environment for SME-driven entrepreneurship, where new use case-tailored functions (as NetApps) can be provided to compose a digitalized, secure and automated generation of the industrial operations (mainly referring to functions for process and machine control as well as procedures for advanced product lifecycle management).

(iii) The VITAL-5G project, that plans to showcase the added-value of 5G connectivity for the European T&L sector by adopting a multi-modal approach containing major logistics hubs for freight and passengers (sea ports, river ports, warehouse / logistics hubs, highways, etc.) as well as the respective stakeholders (road operators, port authorities, 3rd party logistics (3PL) operators), thus creating an end-to-end chain of connected T&L services accommodating the entire continent.

 

Session 7 is focused upon the innovative framework of the 5G-INDUCE project, relying on the deployment of an open ETSI NFV compatible 5G orchestration platform for the deployment of advanced 5G NetApps. The platform’s unique features provide the capability to the NetApp developers to define and modify the application requirements while the underlay intelligent OSS can expose the network capabilities to the end-users on the application level without revealing any infrastructure related information. This process enables an application-oriented network management and optimization approach that is in line with the operator’s role as manager of its own facilities, while it offers the operational environment to any developers and service providers through which tailored made applications can be designed and deployed, for the benefit of vertical industries and without any indirect dependency through a cloud provider. The project focuses on the Industry 4.0 vertical sector, as one of the fastest growing and most impactful sectors in European economy with high potentials for service development SMEs and with the capability to tackle all diverse cases of service requirements. The platform is integrated over 3 5G Experimentation Facilities in Spain, Greece, and Italy, and extended with links towards specific Industries, for the showcasing of NetApps in real 5G environment. The present session intends to further elucidate innovative features coming from the original 5G-INDUCE effort, especially via the provision of an end-to-end orchestration platform for 5G applications that can be easily ported, deployed and managed, showcasing advance 5G trial use cases, with demonstratable performance metrics, that conform to specific KPI requirements. A dedicated industrial use case in Valencia, Spain is further assessed and elaborated, while network advantages in predictive maintenance also comprise an important part of the presented work, especially with ML tools and Augmented Reality (AR) applications implementation. The overall demonstration effort of the project should lead to both technological and business validation of 5G technologies, in the context of specific smart industrial services.

 

 

Session 8 presents a broader approach on concerns for long term evolution and for the inclusion of AI and ML techniques to support smart connectivity beyond 5G in the context of the ongoing AI@Edge, MonB5G,ENCRYPT and OCTAPUS projects. Intended challenge is to go well beyond the 5G capabilities as well as to prepare for the realisation of Smart Connectivity systems as-a-platform for a Next-Generation Internet, for the support of a highly flexible connectivity infrastructure that can dynamically adapt to changing requirements of innovative applications whilst facilitating user data control and innovation friendly implementation of relevant legislation. This also implicates for a full value-chain approach towards seamless and secure end-to-end interworking with computing resources (e.g. distributed data centres, edge computing) and with a range of innovative devices. It also promotes smart connectivity technologies for platforms integrating ubiquitous connectivity, storage, and computing resources opening for new service and business models and also integrating technologies and architectures towards perceived zero latency. In addition, network scalability towards a high number of resource-constrained (IoT) devices, multiplicity of service requirements, and new user-controlled connectivity paradigms is also a core feature, especially if correlated to secure and trusted environments for software based virtualised networks, including underlying hardware limitations and enabling trusted multi-tenancy. Other challenges may also implicate for network heterogeneity with dynamic topologies for advanced mobility solutions, dynamic scalability of network capabilities through availability of managed and enhanced optical resources and inclusion of AI and blockchain technologies notably for network/service management and security. Session 8 has so selected four relevant projects to be discussed as characteristic examples.

The AI@Edge project provides a secure and reusable AI platform for Edge Computing in B5G networks. The core aim is to build a platform and tools enabling secure and automated roll-out of large-scale edge and cloud compute infrastructures, with close to zero-touch of the underlying heterogeneous MEC resources (network, storage, and compute resources). The project addresses fundamentally important security aspects, covering both service isolation and protection required for secure federated learning and data sharing, as well as security for AI/ML models that may be vulnerable to manipulation attacks.

The MonB5G project promotes options for zero-touch management and orchestration in the support of network slicing at massive scales for 5G LTE and beyond. It proposes a novel autonomic management and orchestration framework, heavily leveraging distribution of operations together with state-of-the-art data-driven AI-based mechanisms. It is designed around a hierarchical approach that allows the flexible and efficient management of network tasks, while introducing a diverse set of centralization levels through an optimal adaptive assignment of monitoring, analysis, and decision-making tasks. Among the key features is also about promoting energy efficiency techniques, within a hierarchical, fault-tolerant, automated data driven network management system.

The ENCRYPT project proposes a scalable and practical privacy-preserving framework. The main goal is to “address” challenges related to existing Privacy Preserving technologies, thus providing researchers and service providers working with personal and other sensitive data, with a scalable, practical, adaptable privacy-preserving framework facilitating a (General Data Protection Regulation) GDPR-compliant processing of such data, stored in federated cross-border data spaces.

The OCTAPUS project aims to develop an Optical Circuit Switched Time Sensitive Network architecture for High-Speed Passive Optical Networks (PONs) and next generation ultra-dynamic and reconfigurable Central Office (CO) environments. This purely supports the fact that electronic and photonic components, and the software that defines how they work, are “key” digital technologies that underpin all digital systems.

 

 

Session 9 discusses various examples and/or related market applications, by identifying results within dedicated business or scientific scenarios. Among others, it comprises presentations coming from several ongoing research projects and related applied initiatives. These can serve as detailed examples of innovation in specific environments/ecosystems of our everyday life and experience.

The SLICES-SC project offers the community of academic and industrial researchers the means to perform advanced experiments on research infrastructures, around Europe. It aims to organise and engage the community around the users of digital science research infrastructures and address related key issues for providing the infrastructure to a larger audience. Harmonised access, use and sharing of the different platforms, knowledge, technologies and resources (both human and technical) to different groups of users, irrespective of location, will sustain a Starting Community leveraging on a common world-class Digital Research Infrastructure.

Wellbeing of citizens can strongly be affected by using Earth Observation (EO), IoT and corresponding telecommunications assets. In this scope brief results coming from several initiatives are discussed, including: (i) The D2EPC project that intends to set the grounds for the next generation of dynamic Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for buildings. (ii) The euPOLIS project that aims to improve public health in cities by introducing nature-based solutions into urban planning practices. (iii) The HEART project, aiming to use medical evidence in clinical and non-clinical setting. All respective information will be processed in the corresponding data management tool that is using advanced ML and AI techniques, modules and tools so that to provide to the stakeholders (i.e., health/city/regional authorities) well-proven innovative urban planning methodologies as fundamental standards for future design of urban districts and regeneration of urban environments. (iv) The HARMONIA project that aims to unite all relevant stakeholders around the issue of climate change. The respective platform, being user friendly, will allow stakeholders to not only understand but also to visualize the impact of CC across different environments and so to enhance cities’ preparedness to respond to specific predictions, such as floods or dust storms, and protect their residents and assets.

The Municipality of Egaleo (MoE), in Athens-Attica, Greece participates in various European and national research projects, supporting direct implementation of smart city applications so that to offer explicit benefits to the citizens. More specifically, MoE is challenged to implement a smart city strategy through the experience of 5G. MoE wants to implement smart city applications to streamline its municipal operations by providing information data and improving services for Egaleo’s citizens. Furthermore, MoE aims to implement smart cities applications to help with a range of issues and operational challenges. These may include such smart cities applications like environmental monitoring, security video cameras, location-based services, traffic monitoring and flow improvement, municipal communications with citizens, digital advertising, and many other applications not yet invented. All of these can be part of creating the future of new era for Egaleo city.

 

 

Presentations and Speakers:

 

Session 1:        5G in the Smart Grid – The Novel Approach of the Smart5Grid European Project

Time-Slot: 09h15’ – 10h30’

 

P1.     “Smart5Grid: Towards an Efficient Demonstration of 5G Solutions for the Smart Energy Grids of the Future

(Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Ioannis P. Chochliouros

Head of Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P2.     “Vertical Use Case: Real-time Wide Area Monitoring between Greece and Bulgaria – Opportunities and Challenges for DSOs/TSOs

(Mr. Dimitrios Brodimas – IPTO, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Dimitrios Brodimas

Senior Researcher

Department of Research Technology and Development

General Division of Technology, System Planning and Strategy

Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), Greece

 

P3.     “Vertical Use Case: Real-time Wide Area Monitoring between Greece and Bulgaria – Developing a Modern Network Interconnection Scheme by the 5G Operators

 (Mr. Michalis Rantopoulos – OTE/COSMOTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Michalis Rantopoulos

Researcher

Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P4.     “Vertical Use Case: Millisecond Level Precise Distributed Generation Monitoring for Optimized Renewable Energy Resources (RES) Operation and Maintenance

 (Mrs. Ralitsa Rumenova – Entra Energy, Bulgaria) – 15’

 

Mrs. Ralitsa Rumenova

Project Manager

Entra Energy (EE), Bulgaria

 

P5.     “Essential Components and Core Features of the Smart5Grid Platform for Implementing the 5G Perspective”

(Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Ioannis P. Chochliouros

Head of Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

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Break 1 –

Time-Slot: 10h30’ – 10h40’

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Session 2:   DataPorts: The Way towards Smart and Cognitive Ports in the “5G and Beyond” Era

                             Time-Slot: 10h40’ – 11h40’

 

P6.     “DataPorts: Challenges and Opportunities in Seaports”

(Dr. Christos Gizelis – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Christos Gizelis

Principal Innovation Analyst

IT Innovation Center

OTE Group of Companies

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P7.     “COREOR Pickup Use Case: Making Ports Nodes in the Global Network

(Mr. Grigorios Dimitriadis – Thessaloniki Port Authority S.A., Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Grigorios Dimitriadis

Senior Researcher

Thessaloniki Port Authority (ThPA) S.A., Greece

 

P8.     “Data Governance in the DataPorts Contextual Approach

(Dr. Alexandros Zerzelidis, Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Alexandros Zerzelidis

Software Engineer – Research Associate

Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece

 

P9.     “Data Processing and Interoperability Services in DataPorts

(Dr. Achilleas Marinakis, Institute of Communication and Compute Systems (ICCS) / National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Achilleas Marinakis, M.Sc.

Research Engineer

Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Greece

Institute of Communication and Compute Systems (ICCS) / National technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece

 

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Break 2 –

Time-Slot: 11h40’ – 11h50’

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Session 3:       Machine Learning- based Networking Solutions for Implementing 5BG Smart Connectivity: Network Solutions and Opportunities from the Context of MARSAL European Project

                             Time-Slot: 11h50’ – 12h50’

 

P10.   “MARSAL: Overall Vision, Use Cases and Requirements

(Dr. Alexandros Kostopoulos & Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Alexandros Kostopoulos

Senior Researcher

Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

Dr. Ioannis P. Chochliouros

Head of Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P11.   “KPIs for the Description of MARSAL’s PoCs

(Dr. Ioannis Chochliouros – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Ioannis P. Chochliouros

Head of Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P12.   “Machine Learning-based, Networking and Computing Infrastructure Resource Management of 5G and Beyond Intelligent Networks: The MARSAL Vision towards 6G Networks

(Dr. Kostas Ramantas & Dr. John Vardakas – IQU, Spain) – 15’

 

Dr. Kostas Ramantas

Senior Researcher

Iquadrat Informatica S.l. (IQU), Spain

 

Dr. John Vardakas

Senior Researcher

Iquadrat Informatica S.l. (IQU), Spain

 

P13.   “Optical Networks: A “Key” to the Society’s Digitisation: Research Challenges

(Dr. Polyzois Soumplis – ICCS/NTUA, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Polyzois Soumplis

Senior Researcher

Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (ICCS)

National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece

 

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Break 3 –

Time-Slot: 12h50’ – 13h00’

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Session 4:       Advanced 5G Validation Trials in Market Verticals

                             Time-Slot: 13h00’ – 13h45’

 

P14.   “5G-TOURS Athens: A Mobility Efficient City – Final Results”

(Dr. Velissarios Gezerlis – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Velissarios Gezerlis

Senior Reseacher

Technology Labs & Testing Department, Fixed & Mobile

Voice & VAS Network DevOps Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P15.   “5G Network Performance Monitoring in 5G-TOURS and 5G-HEART Horizon Projects: Results & Lessons Learned

(Dr. Ioannis Patsouras – ACTA, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Ioannis Patsouras

Technical Project Manager

R&D Department

ACTA Ltd., Greece

 

P16.   “5G-VICTORI: Transforming Power Utilities into Smart Factories”

(Mr. Eleftherios Mylonas – IPTO, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Eleftherios Mylonas

Researcher

Department of Research Technology and Development

General Division of Technology, System Planning and Strategy

Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), Greece

 

 

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Break 4 –

Time-Slot: 13h45’ – 13h55’

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Session 5:       5G Core Technologies for Innovation and Connected Automated Mobility (CAM)

                             Time-Slot: 13h55’ – 15h00’

 

P17.   “Digital Twin with Embedded AI and IoT for Smart Cities”

(Prof. Nancy Alonistioti – National & Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece) – 15’

 

Prof. Nancy Alonistioti

Software-based Cognitive and Autonomic Networking Lab

Department of Informatics and Telecommunications

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece

 

P18.   “Enablers and Scenarios for a Maritime – Multihop Architecture: The 5G-ROUTES Case”

(Dr. George Agapiou – WINGS, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. George Agapiou

Senior Researcher

WINGS ICT Solutions Information & Communication Technologies, IKE, Greece

 

P19.   “Affordable5G: High-Tech and Affordable 5G Network Roll-Out to Every Corner”

(Mr. George Kontopoulos – 8BELLS, Greece) – 10’

 

Mr. George Kontopoulos

Project Director

8BELLS Ltd., Greece

 

P20.   “Factors affecting the Market Adoption and Evolution of Private 5G Networks: The Affordable5G Case”

(Dr. Ioannis Neokosmidis – inCITES Consulting S.A., Luxembourg) – 10’

 

Dr. Ioannis Neokosmidis

CEO

inCITES Consulting S.A., Luxembourg

 

P21.   “NEMO: Next Generation Meta Operating System for Verticals Applications”

(Mrs. Maria Belesioti – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Mrs. Maria Belesioti

Senior Researcher

Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

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Break 5 –

Time-Slot: 15h00’ – 15h10’

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Session 6:       5G Innovations for Verticals with Third Party Services

                             Time-Slot: 15h10’ – 16h10’

 

P22.   “5GMediaHub: A 5G Experimentation Environment for 3rd Party Media Services

(Dr. Kostas Ramantas – IQU, Spain) – 15’

 

Dr. Kostas Ramantas

Project Coordinator

Senior Researcher

Iquadrat Informatica S.l. (IQU), Spain

 

P23.   “Network Exposure Function simulator: Opening Up 5G network to Verticals (Aspects from the Innovative Framework of the EVOLVED-5G Project)”

(Mr. Dimitrios Fragkos – NCSRD, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Dimitrios Fragkos

Research Associate – Ph.D. candidate

Media Networks Laboratory (MediaNet Lab)

Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications

NCSR “Demokritos” (NCSRD), Greece

 

P24.   “Intent-driven Chatbots for Precise Maintenance in 5G-enabled Industry 4.0 Environments”

(Mr. Nikolaos Vrionis – INFOLYSiS P.C., Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Nikolaos Vrionis

Senior Researcher

INFOLYSiS P.C., Greece

 

P25.   “VITAL-5G: Vertical Applications in Transport and Logistics over 5G Experimentation Facilities – Project Overview

(Mr. George Tsiouris – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. George Tsiouris

Senior Researcher

Core Network Testing Section

Technology Labs & Testing Department, Fixed & Mobile

Voice & VAS Network DevOps Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

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Break 6 –

Time-Slot: 16h10’ – 16h20’

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Session 7:       Open and Cooperative 5G Experimentation Platforms for the Industrial Sector NetApps: Innovations coming from the 5G-INDUCE Program

                             Time-Slot: 16h20’ – 17h20’

 

P26.   “5G-INDUCE Platform Design for Industrial Sector Network Application

(Dr. Chiara Lombardo – Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Italy) – 15’

 

Dr. Chiara Lombardo

Principal Researcher

Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Italy

P27.   “Advancing I4.0 with 5G SA, AMRs, VR and ML, at Ford Motors Factory in Valencia (Spain)

(Mr. Manuel Lorenzo – Ericsson Spain S.A., Spain) – 15’

 

Mr. Manuel Lorenzo

Head of Technology & Innovation

Ericsson Spain S.A. (ERC), Spain

 

P28.   “5G Network Advantages in Predictive Maintenance

(Mrs. Christina Lessi – OTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Mrs. Christina Lessi

Core Network Testing Section

Technology Labs & Testing Department, Fixed & Mobile

Voice & VAS Network DevOps Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P29.   “ML Tools and AR Applications Implementation in a 5G Environment for Predictive Maintenance

(Prof. Franco Davoli – Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Italy) – 15’

 

Prof. Franco Davoli

Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Telecommunications Engineering, and Naval Architecture, University of Genoa, Italy &

Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), Italy

 

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Break 7 –

Time-Slot: 17h20’ – 17h30’

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Session 8:       Long Term Evolution and Smart Connectivity Beyond 5G

                             Time-Slot: 17h30’ – 18h30’

 

P30.   “AI@Edge: A Secure and Reusable Artificial Intelligence Platform for Edge Computing in Beyond 5G Networks”

(Mr. Stelios Koumoutzelis – 8BELLS, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Stelios Koumoutzelis

Software Developer and Project Consultant

8BELLS Ltd., Greece

 

P31.   “Energy Efficiency Techniques of MonB5G”

(Mrs. Vasiliki Vlahodimitropoulou – OTE/COSMOTE, Greece) – 15’

 

Mrs. Vasiliki Vlahodimitropoulou

Researcher

Fixed Network R&D Programs Section

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (OTE), Greece

 

P32.   “ENCRYPT: A Scalable and Practical Privacy-preserving Framework”

(Mr. Konstantinos Kaltakis – 8BELLS, Greece) – 15’

 

Mr. Konstantinos Kaltakis

Senior Project Manager

8BELLS Ltd., Greece

 

P33.   “OCTAPUS: Building the Next Generation Central Office for the 5G and Beyond Era”

(Dr. George Kalfas – AUTH, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. George Kalfas

Research Associate

WinPhoS Research Group

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

 

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Break 8 –

Time-Slot: 18h30’ – 18h35’

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Session 9:       Facing Market Needs and Applications for Enhancing Wellbeing of Citizens

                             Time-Slot: 18h35’ – 19h20’

 

P34.   “SLICES-SC: Offering the Community of Academic and Industrial Researchers the Means to Perform Advanced Experiments On Research Infrastructures around Europe

(Dr. Konstantinos Filis – COSMOTE Mobile Communications S.A., Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Konstantinos Filis

Senior R&D Engineer

Research and Development Department, Fixed & Mobile

Core Network DevOps & Technology Strategy Division, Fixed & Mobile

COSMOTE Mobile Communications S.A., Greece

 

P35.   “Horizon Projects for Citizens Wellbeing using EO, IoT and Telecommunication Assets: The Examples of D2EPC, euPOLIS, HEART and HARMONIA”

(Mrs. Betty Charalampopoulou – Geosystems Hellas S.A., Greece) – 15’

 

Mrs. Betty Charalampopoulou

CEO / President

Geosystems Hellas S.A., Greece

 

P36.   “Utilization of National and European Programs in the City of Egaleo”

(Dr. Dimitrios Tzempelikos – Municipality of Egaleo, Greece) – 15’

 

Dr. Dimitrios Tzempelikos

Project Manager

Municipality of Egaleo (MoE), Greece

 

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  • End of Workshop –

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