Hispasat will be the satellite operator of the project that will make Barcelona a key node for 5G tests in Europe

The Spanish operator is part of the team that will carry out tests to define hybrid infrastructures for 5G services and measure the indicators. The proposal, presented to the European Commission, involves a consortium of more than 40 companies and public and private entities.

Hispasat has announced in the Mobile World Congress their participation in the team of companies that will carry out the tests for the hybrid network design which, through the most efficient combination of different space and terrestrial technologies, will provide the services of the fifth generation of mobile telephony (5G) in the future.

The initiative, called 5GBarcelona, aims to turn the city into a living laboratory in which the implementation of the new infrastructures necessary for the deployment of 5G connectivity in its different uses and verticals will be experienced. Within this initiative Hispasat participates in a proposal, in the evaluation phase by the European Commission, which could be financed through the program 5G-PPP of the EU.

A Hispasat satellite will be part of this project so that the performance indicators that have been set in the standard can be tested and validated. This is a very relevant R&D initiative, led by the i2CAT Foundation and in which entities such as the Center Tecnològic de Telecommunications de Catalunya (CTTC), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Seat or Huawei, among others, also participate. The pilot that is being designed will serve to integrate the satellite as another component in future 5G architectures and will demonstrate that the 5G satellite-terrestrial combination can make video distribution more efficient through coded pre-recorded content techniques (code caching), as well as test support for said integration through the virtualization of network functions.

It will also validate the ubiquity indicator to extend the range of 5G services to poorly or unconnected areas. The use cases that are planned to be studied are related to the connected car, smart cities, connected hospital, public safety or immersive virtual reality and data on speed, latency or performance of the different technologies and the improvement in efficiency that their combination will allow will be verified. It is expected that work can begin in September of this year, once the program is approved by the European Commission, and a demonstrator is planned to be held in Barcelona in 2019.

Other 5G projects

In addition, Hispasat is also actively participating in other European projects focused on the development of the future generation of 5G mobile services, such as the so-called NRG5, which has among its objectives the predictive maintenance of electrical distribution lines and gas plants through the use of drones. In this use case Hispasat will provide the connectivity to link the remote base stations with the control and operations center, to which the data collected by the drones will be transmitted, and will analyze the requirements and the precise network architecture for this service.

On the other hand, Hispasat is part of the group of 16 large companies in the satellite industry that signed in 2017, within the framework of the Paris Air and Space Show, a joint declaration with the ESA to collaborate on the project. Satellite for 5G. As part of this initiative, which is planned to develop in 2018-20, ESA and satellite operators, service providers and manufacturers will work together on 5G service trials, cross-cutting activities and their scope.

All these projects are part of the European program 5G-PPP (Public-Private Partnership) which is organized in three phases. The first was aimed at presenting innovative solutions on which 5G could be based. In the second phase (NRG5), currently underway, the aim is to put into practice what was developed in the previous stage. At the end of January 2018, the first call for projects for the third phase was closed, requesting 5G pilots and cities to apply as urban laboratories (5GTrial).