UK Pumps $35 Million Into 5G Testing

　　The UK government will invest about $35 million into six projects to test 5G across a range of applications, including smart farming with drones, using the IoT to improve healthcare in the home, increasing manufacturing productivity and maximizing the future benefits of self-driving cars.

　　Each testbed will receive between ?2 million and ?5 million (about $3 million to $7 million) in government grants as part of a total investment of ?41m from private and other public sector funding, to explore technologies that use high frequency spectrum to deliver internet speeds of over a gigabit per second.

　　Two of the projects involve Blu Wireless, a developer of mmWave baseband IP.  One of these projects is a 5G testbed in Liverpool where the company is part of a consortium that will provide wireless technology to bring gigabit broadband networks to deprived areas, building the foundation for next generation healthcare services in those areas. The other is the AutoAir 5G testbed for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV), a pilot project for providing high-speed transport (cars, buses and trains) with sufficient real-time network bandwidth.

　　Henry Nurser, CEO of Blu Wireless, said that in the Liverpool project, the company has been able to convince the government that 5G is not just about the radios, but a network of networks. He said, "Three years ago, 5G was positioned as a heterogenous network of networks, but this was hijacked by the mobile network operators (MNOs) to be a licensed link technology. Hence the OEMs were heavily pushing 5G new radios (5G NR), since their main customer base was the MNOs."

　　He added, "Unfortunately, though it’s a nice technology for 26/28 GHz, the radios are power hungry and the baseband is quite complex. The Liverpool project will be a good use-case of how to provide low cost gigabit connectivity to deprived and rural areas — and help address the digital divide."

　　Using its mmWave 60GHz technology, Blu Wireless and its partners hope to demonstrate how gigabit broadband can prove a return-on-investment (RoI) for delivering social and medical care to disadvantaged areas — as well as proving the viability of its wireless technology for commercial ISP broadband deployments. Building on already installed fibre, ISPs will be able to use the unlicensed 60Ghz band to connect homes to a street-level mesh network that can be mounted on street lights. This approach bypasses the need to install physical fibre connections to the individual homes.

　　The deployment here is based on IDT’s RWM 6050 mmWave baseband wireless modem for wireless backhaul and fixed infrastructure, which licenses Blu Wireless’ Hydra 1.0 baseband IP for IEEE 802.11-2012 DMG (Wi-Gig) Gigabit wireless ICs.

　　Nurser said the most important aspect of this is interference mitigation for unlicensed bands. He says that even at 60GHz, with internationally agreed limitations on spectrum use to promote responsible and efficient exploitation, the same "channel" often has to be re-used after a certain distance and neighbouring channels have to be used close by. This results in the potential for distant and neighboring communication links in the same area to interfere with each other, reducing range, throughput and introducing errors (that require information to be re-transmitted after a delay while the error is identified).

　　This becomes a particular challenge in dense deployments (e.g. delivering broadband access to homes) where many, often uncoordinated, links co-exist in close proximity. Hence interference management is necessary using technology in the radios to tackle this to achieve the best total speed for all links in the area, Nurser said.

　　As part of the Liverpool 5G testbed, around 50 inpatients in a local hospital and 150 users of adult social services will have access to applications based on the high-bandwidth broadband network. These applications include video monitoring, augmented by artificial intelligence-based analytics which can spot behavioral anomalies or emergency incidents like falls in the home. Teleconferencing to help patients connect with their practitioners will also be enabled, for cost-effective remote healthcare and to combat loneliness in older adults  a serious problem in an ageing population. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems, as well as IoT sensors to monitor in-home conditions, will also be explored in the testbed, to explore their use in preventative care.

　　The AutoAir CAV testbed will focus on developing a range of 5G technologies to serve the unique requirements of new rail and road transport — see details in the full list of projects below.

　　The complete list of projects

　　5G RuralFirst: Rural Coverage and Dynamic Spectrum Access Testbed and Trial

　　Lead organization: Cisco Grant: 4.3m

　　5G RuralFirst, led by Cisco and lead partner University of Strathclyde, will deliver testbeds and trials to exploit 5G benefits for rural communities and industries like agriculture, broadcasting, and utilities, to address the challenges of and build the business case for 5G rural deployment.

　　Based primarily on the Orkney Islands, and in the farmlands of Shropshire and Somerset, the project will integrate spectrum sharing strategies for 5G; bringing connectivity to rural communities, enabling smart farming in partnership with Agri-Epi Centre (including drones, autonomous farm vehicles and remote veterinary inspections); innovative methods of delivering broadcast radio over 5G working with the BBC, alongside the delivery of 5G connectivity for IoT in utility and other industries in rural areas.

　　5G Smart Tourism

　　Lead organization: West of England Combined Authority Grant: ?5.0m

　　This testbed will focus on delivering enhanced visual experiences for tourists using AR and VR technology in major attractions in Bath and Bristol, including the Roman Baths and Millennium Square. Content and technology developments will be provided by the BBC and Aardman with support from the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab. It will demonstrate self-provision of 5G and Wi-Fi and innovative mmWave backhaul, and will also address safety issues by providing emergency service capacity through network splicing.

　　Worcestershire 5G Consortium - Testbed and Trials

　　Lead organization: Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership Grant: ?4.8m

　　A team of 5G and industry 4.0 experts lead this project — working with Worcestershire LEP, the consortium comprises: Worcestershire County Council, 5GIC at University of Surrey, AWTG, Huawei, O2, BT and Malvern Hills Science Park. With local businesses Worcester Bosch, and Yamazaki Mazak it will focus on ways to increase industrial productivity through preventative and assisted maintenance using robotics, big data analytics and AR over 5G.

　　It will also have a cyber security aspect, with QinetiQ providing assurances on the "security by design" of 5G and IoT technology. Entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to test 5G capabilities in a new commercial tech accelerator located at the Malvern Hills Science Park.

　　Liverpool 5G Testbed

　　Lead organization: Sensor City Grant: 3.5m

　　Sensor City will lead a consortium made up of public sector health suppliers, the NHS, university researchers, local SMEs and a Blu Wireless Technology. Funded for one year in the first instance, the project will see high value technologies including low-cost open source 5G networks, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and IoT deployed across deprived communities in the Liverpool City Region test bed. The consortium will use this technology to reduce the digital divide, while measuring the impact on patient monitoring and support, management of loneliness in older adults, aid to independents living in the home and the facilitation of communication between hospitals and the community.

　　AutoAir: 5G Testbed for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

　　Lead organization: Airspan Communications Ltd Grant: 4.1m

　　AutoAir will aim to make 5G technologies available for the validation and development of CAVs at the UK’s premiere vehicle proving ground at Millbrook. Fast travel speeds complicate cell-tower handoff, and autonomous vehicles will require more network bandwidth than is available currently. It will also investigate how these 5G connectivity solutions could be transferable to both road and rail transportation.

　　The project is based on the accelerated development of 5G small cells operating in both licensed sub 6 GHz and mmWave bands on a shared "neutral host" platform which allows multiple public and private 5G operators to simultaneously use the same infrastructure using network slicing.

　　5G Rural Integrated Testbed (5GRIT)

　　Lead organization: Quickline Communications Grant: ?2.1m

　　5GRIT will be trialling innovative use of 5G technology across a range of rural applications, such as smart agriculture, tourism and connecting poorly-served communities, using shared spectrum in the TV bands and a mix of local ISPs and self-provision.

　　The aim is to ultimately make high quality connectivity available across Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Inverness-shire, Perthshire and Monmouthshire. Here the consortium will develop 5G-ready AR apps for tourists and investigate how high-bandwidth wireless connectivity can increase food production in farming, including through use of AR and an unmanned aerial system.